Playboy Japan interview

[mikebailey at speakeasy.net]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Carvill John [mailto:johncarvill at hotmail.com]
> Subject: Re: Playboy Japan interview
> 
> Well, exactly. That 1984 intro was, for simple folk like me who've always 
> harboured this kinky idea that Pynch was some sorta lefty, equivalent to 
> suspecting someone of being a secret smoker then rounding a corner to find 
> them impatiently unwrapping a pack of Marlboro reds.
> 
> 

"leftist" as a description of Pynchon's political stance - deploring the calm contemplation of megadeaths by respected planners in the 1984 essay, succinctly implicit in Slow Learner ("high-ranked people can be idiots") and characterizing himself also in SL as an apolitical student - imputes a desire for sanity (respect for human life and liberty) in politics to the left - which would be great if it were true, but much evidence to the contrary exists: the so-called left party repudiating Dean, the peace candidate, and nominating instead a frat brother of Bush whose campaign platform included a plank claiming the just necessity of preemptive war is a powerful antidote to that notion

from another angle, to claim that disdain for graft and excessive militarism  indicates a leftist position cedes the mantle and respect due a legitimate right wing to opportunists and prep-school hegemonists 


>