ATD SPOILER p. 95

[Andrew Pollock]

In context, this passage seemed much less (if at all) about suicide
bombers and much more about adolescent daredevils/malcontents.  I
agree that 9/11 and the murkiness of political terrorism seems very
prevalent in this first section (which is all I've read), but if it's
present in this scene it seems more present as the ghost not of
politics, but of attraction to violence period.  In other words, young
Traverse is only in danger of being a suicide bomber because he's
young, dumb and full of cum...which implies a question about the
purity of motive for self-identified ideologues, a notion borne out in
the other major bombing set-piece in this section.

Andrew


"Subject: ATD SPOILER p. 95

"a radius of annhilation that, if it could not include
the ones who deserved it, might as well include
himself" [95]

...hair-raising to see Pynchon put the suicide
bomber/terrorists back in the US where they also have
a home; the effect also to make them (the suicide
bombers over there somewhere - Afghanistan, Iraq,
etc.) a bit less foreign, an to make ourselves, good
US citizens, appear foreign to ourselves.

September 11, 2001 and its consequences seem obvious
on this novel, at least in these first 95 pages."