"The Evacuation still proceeds..." GR Part 1 Section 1

[kelber at mindspring.com]

I think it is important whence the screaming originates.  I still feel the overriding theme of GR is the representation of the psycho-social anxieties, paranoia and very real terror caused by living in the age of nuclear weapons.  If the Scientific Revolution represents the upward arc of enlightenment, surely WWII represents the zero-point: the moment when science stopped being a force for the betterment of humanity and turned into the cause of the inevitable destruction of humanity -- certainly a dominant anxiety in the 1970's.  On this interpretation, it's essential that the "screaming" comes from a rocket, because this is the overriding image of the entire novel.  The screaming is that of the rocket and our terror of it, echoed perhaps by Gottfried's later scream within the rocket.  The Evacuation scene accompanying the initial screaming is mirrored by the final movie theater scene, in which we wait for nuclear annihilation.

The scream of an air-raid siren is a comparatively wimpy concept (it reminds me of the moronic duck-and-cover drills of my childhood, always initiated by the piercing air-raid siren).

It doesn't matter whehter the rocket can be heard as it passes or much later.  It still makes a noise, just as the proverbial tree in the forest, regardless of whether it can be heard. 

 The second line could refer to this:  It has happened before (the rocket was here earlier) but there is nothing to compare it to now (it's not here now).  Or it could indicate that we've been subjected to seemingly all-encompassing threats of annihilation before, but this (now rocket/soon to be nuclear) threat is qualitatively different (not comparable). 

 
---Original Message-----
From: jbor at bigpond.com
Sent: Oct 30, 2005 3:46 PM
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: "The Evacuation still proceeds..." GR Part 1 Section 1

On 30/10/2005 Paul Nightingale wrote:

> In particular, the
> opening two-line paragraph highlights the way representation has been
> problematised from the off: whether the "screaming" be rocket or siren
> or whistle is surely less important than that "there is nothing to
> compare it to now".

Why is it less important? The "it" refers to the screaming, surely. 
What has caused it is certainly an identifiable category within what's 
happening.

best