VLVL "closed ideological minds" (232)

[jbor]

>> otto
>>> Rex is not talking about Asian dictators but about America explicitly in
>>> that quote.
>> 
>> I disagree. As I've said, I don't think that Rex is talking about America,
>> the Bushes or WASPs specifically in the passage on p. 232.
> 
> He's explicitly talking about America in those 5 1/2 lines. You can deny
> that again and again but it doesn't change the text of the novel.
> 
>> It's a general
>> historical and ideological analysis,
> 
> ... of the Capitalist Puritan American Society, resp. its rulers.

I understand your selective interpretation of "Christian Capitalist Faith"
to be 100% synonymous with WASP America (it isn't, obviously -- Christianity
and Capitalism are generic rather than specific terms, and Rex is a
Bolshevik Leninist, not a Weberian). I simply don't agree that Rex is
talking specifically or only about American politics and history here. He's
an internationalist and an ideologue; he isn't even particularly interested
in the fate of PR3 (232.3). There's nothing about "American dynasties" and
"European dynasties" and "blood-aristocracy" being replaced by
"money-aristocracy" in the quote: that's your construction. He does talk
about the "True Faith" and "crusades" and "retribution", however, which
widens the scope of the historical panorama he's envisaging to include the
rise of Christianity and European imperialism in early modern times.

It's not a major issue, however, but I do understand why you keep harping on
and on about it to cover for other absurdities. It's clear enough that Rex
isn't talking about McCarthyism and anti-communist witchhunts, and quoting
that passage doesn't support the ridiculous contention that Pynchon has
avoided publicity for 40 years because he's scared of McCarthyism and
anti-communist witchhunts, nor is there any indication whatsoever that Rex
is a mouthpiece for Pynchon. Most absurd of all, of course, is the claim
that the Khmer Rouge weren't communist.

best