Pynch-analogy (was

[jbor at bigpond.com]

On 18/06/2006:

> By all means address the content of what I've written below and feel 
> free to disagree or not and make your points.

No? No.

OK then, as the Holocaust is to GR, the American Civil War is to M&D. 
That is, in both cases the reader has full access to historical data 
which is immensely and absolutely relevant to the scenario Pynchon 
depicts (WWII and the Mason-Dixon Line respectively), and about which 
the characters in the novel, and the narrative itself, appear to have 
no inkling. In both novels this dramatic irony creates a tension in the 
act of reading, and incredible poignancy.

It's one of the elements of Pynchon's best work, if not *the* element, 
which makes it great.

best

>> --- jbor at bigpond.com wrote:
>>
>>> I think it's safe to assume that every reader of GR will know about 
>>> the Holocaust. What is striking, though, is its absence from 
>>> Pynchon's narrative. But once you recognise that, at the time the 
>>> novel is set, virtually noone knew what was happening in those 
>>> camps, Pynchon's rationale for this becomes clear.
>>>
>>> For those at the time who did know something about the death camps, 
>>> or those who might have known, like Pirate (the telepath), like 
>>> Katje (the double or triple agent), and like Blicero (the SS 
>>> officer), it was a prospect so terrible that they tried to suppress 
>>> it in their minds, to the point where it only leaks through in 
>>> dreams or neurosis.
>>>
>>> The few direct references we get (105, 666, 681), oblique though 
>>> they are, are likewise fully consistent with how events played out 
>>> at the time. And Pokler's obliviousness, until that moment when he 
>>> walks through the gates of the Dora work camp at war's end (432-3), 
>>> is the clincher.