VLVL "closed ideological minds" (232)

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2004 12:44 AM
Subject: VLVL "closed ideological minds" (232)


> >> 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.
>

It's all in the text, just read the quote. Rex is repeating the historical
connection Pynchon had made in GR already.

As for communism, which Pynchon has correctly presented in GR as a kind of
religion (in a conversation between Tchitcherine and someone from Moscow).

> 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
>

The novel's context concerning East-Asia of course is the Vietnam War.

Rex' criticisms of course can be projected onto the Soviet system, because
communism had become a secular religion. But the novel isn't about Russian
dissidents, it's topic is the nonconformist American youth of the sixties.
That this youth has been too uncritical in embracing communist slogans is
obvious.

Rex is not talking about Asian dictators but about America explicitly in
that quote.

Ironically it's been Ho Chi Minh's army that defeated Pol Pot, ended the
killing fields and turned Cambodia into a free country. Thus to call the
Vietnamese regime a "murderous dictatorship" just like the Khmer Rouge
is absolutely wrong.

Otto