Henry Adams (Hogs, Pigs, & Pygmies)

[Terrance]

Keith McMullen wrote:
> 
>  >>>It is obvious that Pynchon is rooting against the
> right-wing, especially against the Reagan-Bush
> "conservative" politics that slides effortlessly into
> the neofascist. No serious Pynchon reader proposes the
> contrary.<<<
> 
> Agreed. He also obviously roots against "liberal" politics when it just
> as effortlessly slides into buffoonery. To acknowledge such references
> in Vineland does not make one a neo-conservative, nor a frivolous
> reader.

“If a Congressman is a hog, what is a Senator?” This innocent question,
put in a candid spirit, petrified any executive officer that ever sat a
week in his office. Even Adams admitted that Senators passed belief. The
comic side of their egotism partly disguised its extravagance, but
faction had gone so far under Andrew Johnson that at times the whole
Senate seemed to catchhysterics of nervous bucking without apparent
reason."  

I'm sure you've both read it, but one can't do better than _The
Education of Henry Adams_ for understanding the complexities of P's
politics. 

In 1872 Henry Adams was among the Republicans who left their party to
nominate the
Democratic newspaper editor Horace Greeley for president. But Greeley's
defeat -- and a look at politics from the inside -- disappointed Adams.
Disgusted with the political world, Adams began to concentrate on a
career as a historian.

Washington is Circe's Island. Bush is a Pygmy and Kerry is a Pig. I'll
vote for Nader, a mere man.