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

[Tim Strzechowski]

OK.  Thank you.

For the record, I never claimed that GR (or any novel of such complexity as 
GR) can be said to be "about" one particular subject, and I'm sure most here 
would agree with me on that.

To clarify, I *did* say that references to the labour camps -- given their 
"double purpose," as you call it -- could bring with them suggestions of the 
death camps, thus permitting a reader who wishes to read Holocaust-related 
themes and such into the text to do so.  In other words, a Holocaust-related 
reading (if one chooses to have one) isn't *entirely* out of left-field; it 
simply isn't P's primary focus in this novel.

For other listers, I'm sorry to belabor the point and am now done with this 
line of discussion.  Paul, thank you for the clarification.

Tim


Paul said:

>
> It seems so to me.
>
> However the novel is NOT about the Holocaust just because of a few 
> references to it. Among other reasons for avoiding it Pynchon knew it  was 
> not his subject. How long does anyone think he could sustain the 
> seriousness and horror without cracking a joke? Pynchon tends and  needs 
> to  write in a comic mode. This doesn't mean the comic is  never  serious 
> (or the serious comic).
>
>
>
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>> Paul:
>>
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>>>>
>>>>
>>> Perhaps I haven't paid enough attention to know what the dispute  is 
>>> about but everyone knows, don't they, that the labor camps  were part 
>>> of the Final Solution too. It was just that they had a  double  purpose. 
>>> Manpower was in short supply. After '42 the same  roundups of  Jews 
>>> provided victims for the labor camps  as for the  death camps.   The 
>>> scheme was that able bodied men went one way;   children, pregnant 
>>> women, the infirm went the other. No one was  meant to survive for  very 
>>> long.
>>>
>>
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>
>