GRGR Holocaust

[Richard Fiero]

At 11:19 AM 10/26/2005, Keith McMullen wrote:
>If someone who knew nothing of The Holocaust read GR, they would still 
>know NOTHING of what was done to the Jews.
>
>This does not mean that the novel does not address the issue.
>
>This does not mean one is a Holocaust denier by pointing out this fact.
>
>It does raise very interesting and important questions about why Pynchon 
>decided to deal with the Holocaust the way he does.
>
>If you have any doubts about the fact that Pynchon is NOT dealing directly 
>with the historical information, that he is presenting it solely by 
>indirect literary methods. Try and cite anything in the entire novel which 
>would educate someone who found the novel on a desert island about 
>anything specific about the treatment of the Jews.

Not disagreeing--the occurrences of the word "Jew"
1.      on Page 105:
"... inside their antiseptic marble chambers. But out here, down here among 
the people, the truer currencies come into being. So, Jews are negotiable. 
Every bit as negotiable as cigarettes, cunt, or Hershey bars. Jews also 
carry an element of guilt, of ..."
2.      on Page 159:
"... the torch to his own paint factory by the canal, Franz might have 
labored out their days dedicated to the Jew's impossible scheme of 
developing patterned paint, dissolving crystal after patient 159 ..."
3.      on Page 163:
"... Rebecca holds out what's left of the end crust she's been eating. 
"Would she like this?" Not much of the Jew in her. Why are half the 
Leftists she knows Jewish ? She immediately reminds herself that Marx was 
one. A ..."
4.      on Page 165:
"... only want signs, omens, confirmations of what's already in being, 
something to giggle over among the Herrenklub-"We even have the Jew's 
blessing!" Whatever comes through the medium tonight they will warp, they 
will edit, into a blessing. It is contempt of ..."
5.      on Page 170:
"... even Pointsman has noted rough love in the minor gestures, changes of 
breathing and voice. They are blacks, Indians, Ashkenazic Jews speaking 
dialects you never heard in Harley Street: they have been bombed out, 
frozen, starved, meanly sheltered, and their faces, ..."
6.      on Page 172:
"... then? "You don't see them," steam in tight brocade starting to issue 
from the steel-blotched swan's mouth, "the blacks and Jews, in their 
darkness . You can't. You don't hear their silence. You became so used to 
talking, and to light." ..."
7.      on Page 352:
"... in his moments of sickest personal grandeur it is quite clear to him 
how his own namesake and the murdered Jew put together an elaborate piece 
of theatre at Rapallo, and that the real and only purpose was to reveal to 
..."
8.      on Page 399:
"... went out to her street-theatre each time expecting not to come back, 
but he never really knew that. Leftists and Jews in the streets, all right, 
noisy, unpleasant to look at, but the police will keep them channeled , 
she's in ..."
9.      on Page 491:
"... four years ago, the January terror, the Iron Guard on the radio 
screaming Long Live Death, and the bodies of Jews and Leftists hung on the 
hooks of the city slaughterhouses , dripping on the boards smelling of meat 
and hide, ..."
10.     on Page 565:
"... was ace buddies with old FDR, you see. Electric Charlie's in there 
now, but Swope, he was one-thim Brain Trusters. Jews, most of m. But 
Swope's O.K. Now GE has connections with Siemens over here, they worked on 
the V-2 guidance, ..."
11.     on Page 577:
"... does not accept sharing as a basis for anything! He takes, he holds! 
He is not a Bolshevik or a Jew. You will never hear relativity from the 
lion. He wants the absolute. Life and death. Win and lose. Not truces ..."
12.     on Page 582:
"... patent -holding company. Bland got cash, securities, and controlling 
interest in a Glitherius subsidiary in Berlin being run by a Jew named 
Pflaumbaum, yesyes, the same Pflaumbaum Franz Pökler worked for till the 
place burned down and Pökler went back out ..."
13.     on Page 682:
"... he chases, the faster it goes away). MOM SLOTHROP's LETTER TO 
AMBASSADOR KENNEDY Well hi Joe how've ya been. Listen: Jew-zeppy-we're 
getting edgy about our youngest again. Would you try bothering a few of 
those jolly old London connections just once ..."