AtD and 9/11

[David Morris]

I think it's clear that the time period of pre-WWI fascinates Pynchon
on its own merits.  He repeatedly refers to it as a pivitol time in
which a kind of sickness infected the world.  It will have relevance
to current events on a deep level, not as a stand-in.

Ghetta

On 8/16/06, jbor at bigpond.com <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
> "[[...] With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead [...]"
>
> Cf. "[Stencil] had discovered, however, what was pertinent to his purpose: that she'd been connected, though perhaps only tangentially, with one of those grand conspiracies or foretastes of Armageddon which seemed to have captivated all domestic sensibilities in the years preceding the Great War." (V. 155)
>
> "[...] it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred."
>
> I also doubt very much that his point is that the specific 1893-WWI historical context that AtD will span has been used by him as some sort of stand-in for the present time, or that he is really endorsing the use of his work for the purposes of political pamphleteering or propaganda in the present day.