Herero genocide

[jbor at bigpond.com]

> The Second Reich and Genocide methodically described the annihilation 
> and enslavement/slaughter of the Hereros between 1904 and 1909
> The methods used were clear forerunners of the Holocaust and IMO more 
> evidence that Pynchon does not ignore the Holocaust in GR but includes 
> sufficient material to take the interested enquirer further than would 
> have likely been the case had the events been starkly included in the 
> narrative.

I don't think anyone has ever argued that Pynchon "ignores" the 
Holocaust. He simply doesn't place it in the foreground of his 
narrative, primarily because he wants to show how no-one at the time 
was paying any heed to reports or knowledge of what was happening in 
the Nazi death camps, on *both* sides of the war divide.

Pynchon depicts the Herero genocide in _V._ and compares it directly to 
the Holocaust. In _GR_ he refers to a notion of "racial suicide" on the 
part of the Herero. I think that "the interested enquirer" is more 
likely to have a good knowledge of the Holocaust and WWII and begin to 
investigate the earlier atrocities in southern Africa on the strength 
of Pynchon's texts, rather than vice versa.

best