ATDTDA (3) Dynamitic mania, 80-86

[Tore Rye Andersen]

Richard Fiero wrote:

>I don't believe that AtD invites us to make any judgements.

Well, neither do I. What I wrote was that AtD invites us to "think things 
through, and try to consider other viewpoints that are not explicitly stated 
in AtD, or that are at least hard to
hear amid all the happy dynamite blasts of the novel." Thinking things 
through and considering other viewpoints than those explicitly stated in a 
novel is hardly the same as making judgments.

I agree with you that "AtD does accurately portray the convergences of the 
time: Capitalism and
Dynamite, labor struggles and terror (State, Owner and Labor-sponsored), the 
Rebellion, Trusts, and so on." And I believe that this accurate portrayal 
shows us an inherently violent society that in a sense helps create its own 
equally violent opposition of Anarchistic bomb-throwers and seekers of 
revenge. Violence is the default method of conflict resolution in AtD, for 
both the 'good' and the 'bad' guys. Pynchon never really explicitly states 
this (as he probably would have in GR, where not much was left unsaid), but 
he shows it to us again and again - as Webb is tortured to death, as Frank 
unreflectively blows up a trainload of federales, as Reef and Kit try to 
assassinate Scarsdale Vibe, as the Colorado militia brutally suppresses a 
strike, as Theign's eyes are gouged out by vengeance seekers - and I am 
pretty sure that Pynchon would like us to consider this ubiquitous violence 
in depth: not necessarily "making judgments" upon those characters trapped 
in an ever-widening spiral of violence, but at least considering what we 
think of it all, both the said and the unsaid.

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