VLVL 24fps and "the Movement"

[jbor]

>> I agree (have agreed, continue to...) and again, point to
>> the almost total lack of the portrayal of the combined
>> civil rights/anti-war movement (that coalesced around MLK, Jr.)
>> in this novel, as another example of P. using the "presence
>> of absence" technique, as he did in GR, to a large extent, with
>> the Holocaust (I know you don't precisely accept that, but we
>> are working on the same side...) to draw even more attention
>> to the real battle, and more importantly, to the real enemy, as
>> opposed to their tele-envisioned versions.

Terrance:

> The real enemy is Hollywood? The Press? Journalists?

The Establishment, man.

Meanwhile, back at the text, Rex Snuvvle is described as follows:

    while being indoctrinated into the government's version of
    the war in Vietnam, [he] had, despite his own best efforts,
    been at last as unable to avoid the truth as, once knowing
    it, to speak it, out of what he easily admitted was fear of
    reprisal.  (207)

The point Pynchon is making in _Vineland_ is that, by 1969, there was no
longer a "combined civil rights/anti-war movement". The students and
agitators were busy bickering amongst themselves, smoking dope and playing
dress-ups and, eventually, making bombs and breaking things, and
demonstrating and rioting just for the sake of it. The Civil Rights and
anti-War and free speech causes got lost along the way.

By comparison, in _GR_, none of the characters know about -- or else they
want to pretend to themselves that they don't know about (eg. Blicero and
Katje's Oven game) -- the Holocaust. That's why it is not referred to in the
novel.

best