VLVL "betrayal, cowardice, destructiveness, and lying" (81)

[jbor]

>> None of these quotations have anything to do with McCarthyism and the
>> anti-communist witchhunts of the 1950s, let alone do they justify your
> claim
>> that Pynchon's avoidance of publicity and the media in the 1960s and
> beyond
>> is due to a fear of McCarthyism and anti-communist witchhunts.

otto 
> You shouldn't restrict your interpretation to the 60's-context these quotes
> directly refer to. The "personnel changed, the Repression went on" is a
> strong sentence, especially with the "Repression" with a capital "R".

referring to:

> "The personnel changed, the Repression went on, growing wider, deeper,
> and less visible, regardless of the names in power (...)." (72)

The passage refers specifically to Frenesi's career as a government agent
and the government "personnel" before and after Watergate. The phrase "the
Repression" (with a capital "R") is an abbreviation of and reference to "the
Nixonian Repression" mentioned in the previous paragraph:

"... like you had no makeup on, when tatters and patches had had their day
and the outlines of the Nixonian Repression were clear enough even for the
most gaga of hippie optimists to see ..." (71)

Elsewhere Pynchon uses the phrase "the Nixonian Reaction" (also with a
capital "R") synonymously:

"... it was among the least of all the civilities allowed to lapse
throughout Brock's profession as the Nixonian Reaction continued to
penetrate and compromise further what may only in some fading memories ever
have been a people's miracle ..." (239)

Nothing to do with McCarthyism or anti-communist witchhunts of the 1950s.

best