Hopeless Holocaust

[David Gentle]

>> Howdy all,
>> I think (FWIW) that Pynchon intended to foster complex non-standard
>> moral judgements in his readers. Few subjects trigger more
>> straightforward, and more broadly shared, moral conclusions as the
>> Holocaust. Auschwitz is absolute, and trumps - always. IMO it was a
>> sound artistic choice for P to treat the Holocaust by reference,
>> inflection, infusion, and indirection. The Holocaust is there in the
>> story and the text, but it is treated in a way that illuminates the
>> moral complexities of our civilization for an informed adult reader.
>>
>
> I like this observation.  Avoiding a direct reference lets Pynchon 
> sidestep
> Godwin's Law.
As far as I know Godwin's Law wasn't coined until 1990. There was an article 
about it (by Mike Godwin himself) in Wired issue [uh...hang on] 2.10 that 
always struck me as an incredibly arrogant piece of writing.

DG

ps. One persons signal is another persons noise.