Ethical Diversions

[jd]

I absolutely agree.

But, the Holocaust is, in my opinion, undeniably in GR.  Words can't
do justice to the acts done in the work / death camps.  Leaving it on
the outskirts, there, but not quite blatantly, is almost more powerful
than if he delved right into the meat of it all.  By putting words to
it, the horror is dispelled.  By leaving it on the relative outskirts,
the human mind draws its own horrible conclusions / inclinations that
are more powerful than words can ever be.  Nothing Pynchon could write
about the Holocaust could fill up that niche in our mind in regards to
the Holocaust - by leaving it a realtive void, by simply making
allusions to it, it makes us realize more than if he spelled it all
out for us in his own words.  Keep in mind, the shower scene in Psycho
was more powerful because it didn't SHOW the woman being killed.

It had nothing to do with him possible being unable, unworthy, or
uncapable of writing about it, I'm sure he has volumes of thoughts in
regards to it - in my opinion it had more to do with the fact that he
knew it was best to leave it on the outskirts and that, while it did
have something to do with the novel, ultimately to talk about it would
have been to demean it.  Or it simply didn't fit as a major part in
what he was writing about, whichever.

On 6/22/06, Peter E. Zelz <pzelz at earthlink.net> wrote:
> OK, this is getting tedious.
>
> A.  Who said that the Holocaust had to be an element in every novel set in
> WWII?
> B.  Why the hell should I care?
>
> Cheers,
> z
>
>
>
> > [Original Message]
> > From: Dave Monroe <monropolitan at yahoo.com>
> > To: <MalignD at aol.com>; <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> > Date: 6/22/2006 11:03:20
> > Subject: Re: Ethical Diversions
> >
> > There's an awful lot the narrator/s know/s that teh
> > chracters don't.  There's an awuful lt both Pynchon
> > and hs readers know, or can at least be expected to
> > ...
> >
> > Keep in mind, all I've been arguing all these, well,
> > YEARS now is that the Holocaust is indeed an element
> > in Gravity's Rainbow (just as it is in, say, V., or
> > The Crying of Lot 49, for that matter), and, as such,
> > worth commenting on ...
> >
> > Of course, I've been arguing that nigh unto EVERYTHING
> > in there is worth commenting on, but here's where I've
> > been getting some peculiar resitance.  But perhaps
> > that at long last has dissipated.  Let me know ...
> >
> > --- MalignD at aol.com wrote:
> > >
> > > I think we agree in sum, but isn't this a little
> > > circular?  I.e. -- or, he created characters with
> > > limited knowledge so that he wouldn't have to
> > > foreground  the Holocaust.
> >
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