Ethical Diversions

[jbor at bigpond.com]

> On 6/22/06:
>> My only reservation about that theory is that he seems to have had no
>> qualms whatsoever about addressing the Herero genocide in his novels
>> and working up fictional characters and scenarios from it. I know I've
>> made the point before.

On 24/06/2006:
> A cheap-shot argument would be to say, "Yeah, but how many Hereros are
> running around SoCal and Manhattan Island these days?  I mean, it
> ain't like some Herero kid became a hot-shot filmmaker and grew up to
> direct Schindler's List."
>
> Like I said, it's a cheap shot.  I do not endorse its validity.

It would be even more problematic to say "but they were only Africans", 
or, "it's because there were less of them", and argue that that's why 
it's OK for Pynchon (or why he decided it was OK) to use them and not 
Holocaust victims as grist to his fictional mill.

Not that anyone's saying that. But it does throw a spanner into the 
theory.

best