GR & Holocaust, & M&D, & etc

[pynchonoid]

jbor:
Yes, the absence of literal references to or
descriptions of the death 
camps and the Holocaust is one of the most striking
things about GR. [...]

You forget Pokler in the death camp with the dead and
dying slave laborers (Holocaust victims) who built the
rockets, and the terrible epiphany that follows
Pokler's realization of the guilt he shares for their
suffering. 

We've discussed and debated all this before, of
course, many times.  I find it interesting that a
reader can read the opening sequence as a dream
reflecting the historical reality of the Holocaust,
yet continue to deny the Holocaust the place that it
acctually occupies in Pynchon's text (in countless
direct references and allusions), not to mention the
part that the Holocaust plays in the historical
setting within which Pynchon situates the novel.

I'm not sure what's gained by a reader who puts
himself in the position of a historical personage who,
in 1944, in Nazi Germany, somehow doesn't know that
millions of Jews and other victims are disappearing,
suffering, and dying. An interesting thought
experiment, I guess. 

I find this idea that nobody knew about the Holocaust
while it was happening unconvincing; it seems to be
most often offered as an excuse for those who knew it
was happening but did nothing to stop it.

Thanks for acknowledging that you adopted this reading
of GR's opening sequence after hearing it from me
here, at least.
 
from the '99 GRGR:

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9905&msg=37722&sort=author

Date: Tue, 4 May 1999 10:08:25 -0700
To: pynchon-l@[omitted]
From: Doug Millison <millison@[omitted]>
Subject: GRGR(1) Kristallnacht

I'm sure I'm not to first to suggest that the
political Pynchon may be
alluding, with the "great invisible crashing" of glass
in the second
paragraph, to Kristallnacht:

"(German: "Night of Crystal"), also called NIGHT OF
BROKEN GLASS, night
of violence against Jewish persons and property
carried out by the
German Nazis on Nov. 9-10, 1938--so called in irony
from the litter of
broken glass left in the aftermath.

"The pretext for the incident was the shooting in
Paris on November 7 of
the German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by a Polish-Jewish
student,
Herschel Grynszpan. News of Rath's death on November 9
reached Adolf
Hitler in Munich, where he was celebrating the
anniversary of his abortive
1923 Beer Hall Putsch. There, Minister of Propaganda
Joseph Goebbels,
after conferring with Hitler, harangued the gathering
of old Storm
Troopers, urging violent reprisals to be staged to
appear as
"spontaneous demonstrations." Telephone orders from
Munich triggered
pogroms throughout Germany and Austria.

"The toll of the night's violence included 91 Jews
killed, hundreds
seriously injured, and thousands more humiliated and
terrorized. About
7,500 Jewish businesses were gutted and an estimated
177 synagogues
were burned or otherwise demolished. Police were
ordered not to
interfere. Moreover, on orders from Reinhard Heydrich,
chief of the
Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police), the Gestapo
arrested 30,000 wealthy
Jews, who were to be released only on condition of
emigration and
surrender of their wealth. Within a week, Interior
Minister Hermann
Göring ordered several further repressive actions
against Jews, including
an indemnity of 1,000,000,000 marks and a prohibition
against Jewish
use of public parks. Insurance payments to owners of
wrecked
businesses were confiscated by the state.
Kristallnacht and its
aftermath marked a major escalation in the Nazi
program of Jewish
persecution."

--"Kristallnacht" Encyclopædia Britannica Online
<http://www.members.eb.com/bol/topic?eu=47332&sctn=1>;
[Accessed May 4, 1999].

If you read the "carriage" as a train car to a Nazi
death camp, this
allusion makes even more sense -- Pynchon announcing
right up front what
lies at the heart of this novel: the Holocaust of the
Jews, and the forces
(corporate, governmental, and military) that brought
it about. 

GR & MD
Here's a post I wrote back in the '99 GRGR about some
links between GR's opening and M&D:
http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9905&msg=37676&sort=author

On another thread,Pynchon doesn't get to choose which
of a word's various layers of meaning and connotation
a reader considers. It may be possibile to suggest
which meanings might work best based on related
textual evidence, but I don't see how a reader knows
for sure which Pynchon intended.

It's a big novel, obviously, which can be approached
from any number of angles, and interpreted in many
ways. To each her own, let's hope the discussion
coheres in a way that enriches this reading of GR.

http://pynchonoid.org
"everything connects"


		
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