VLVL "closed ideological minds" (232)

[jbor]

>> otto
>>> Why do you leave out the third quote that shows the historical dimension
>>> from the Pilgrim Fathers to the Bush-dynasty.
>>> 
>>> "You're up against the True Faith here, some heavy dudes, talking
> crusades,
>>> retribution, closed ideological minds passing on the Christian
> Capitalist
>>> Faith intact, mentor to protégé, generation to generation, living inside
>>> their power, convinced they're immune to all the history the rest of us
> have
>>> to suffer." (232)
>>> 
>>> Are you avoiding specific pieces of the text? McCarthyism was based
>>> precisely on this ideology.
>> 
>> I don't think Rex Snuvvle is talking about McCarthyism especially -- his
>> perspective is emphatically internationalistic, and he's more interested
> in
>> the looming Évenements in Paris and the war and ideological struggles in
>> Indo-China. And I don't think you can infer that the character is simply a
>> mouthpiece for his author's opinions on this issue or any other, or that
>> this quotation in any way supports your original argument that Pynchon has
>> avoided making public appearances because he is fearful of McCarthyism and
>> anti-communist witchhunts.
>> 
> Rex is talking about the WASP's who rule the USA and not only about the
> Vietnam-quagmire in the quote. I have offered the ongoing repression only as
> another possibility.
> 
> Of course not every character is a mouthpiece of the author, but the
> critique of the "closed ideological minds" of the "Christian Capitalist
> Faith" is very much in accordance to what he wrote about the Puritans in GR
> and the way he presents the early Americans in M&D.

I don't think that Rex is ranting against WASPs, the Pilgrim Fathers or
America specifically, or singling them out. He's a Communist, so he
repudiates religion along with capitalism. He is making a historical
connection between Christianity, Capitalism and political control,
certainly, and Protestantism is one branch of Christianity, but I think his
intolerance and dogmatism is wider-reaching than that.

Ironically, with Rex, you're also up against a "closed ideological mind",
and he ends up murdering Weed because his own "True Faith" is so unyielding.
The exact same criticisms Rex is making about Western capitalist states
could be levelled equally (if not more so) at Socialist states and ideology.
The murderous dictatorships in South-East Asia (Ho Chi Minh's, the Khmer
Rouge) referred to or alluded to in connection with Rex's quest are a part
of the novel's context which cannot be ignored.

best