ATD SPOILER p. 95

[Ande]

Why discussion is better than the wiki--which already has "supposition" 
unmoderated by exposure to other perspectives...I grew up blowing things 
up for fun,  (and playing with model rocket kits, too) and I read this 
section the same way Scott did, which isn't to say that the interest in 
anarchists isn't political or poignant given 9/11 and the War on 
Terror...looking forward to the group read---and would suggest that the 
wiki be used for "references"....just my 2cents.

Ande

Scott Badger wrote:

> Back in my childhood neck of the woods, explosives were a favorite, 
> and particularly active, area of research...not having a familial 
> dynamite connection, nor even commercially available fire-works, we 
> "mined" our material from Estes model-rocket engines and Dad's shotgun 
> shells...
>
> No other motive than the bang.
>
> Scott
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew Pollock" <ahpollock at gmail.com>
> To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>; <pynchonoid at yahoo.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2006 2:55 PM
> Subject: Re: ATD SPOILER p. 95
>
>
>> 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."
>>
>
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