VLVL Pynchon's filtered narration

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2004 10:11 AM
Subject: Re: VLVL Pynchon's filtered narration
>
> It's worth noting, too, that the "police state" never actually eventuates,
> neither in the novel nor out.
>
> best
>

I don't think that this opinion is shared by all readers of the novel.

"Troopers evicted the members of a commune in Texas, beating the boys with
slapjacks, grabbing handcuffed girls by the pussy, smacking little kids
around, and killing the stock, all of which Prairie, breathing deliberately,
made herself watch." (199)

One cannot accuse Prairie of an ideological point of view watching the
24fps-archives.

"In those days it was still unthinkable that any North American agency would
kill its own civilians and then lie about it." (248)

What, if not a "police state"-behaviour is what happens to the reporter from
the radical press that "must have infiltrated" later on the press
conference?

And what does the "In those days it was still unthinkable" mean? Doesn't it
mean that later it was thinkable because it had happened?

Otto