AtDTDA (8): The Processing of Souls 210

[Joe Allonby]

The Governor is a siman thug with a swagger that is more of an ape-like
trudge, who together with his weasel minion, presides over a death industry.
Despite his deadly despostism, he's a physical coward who doesn't like
people to witness his own pathetic executions due to his incompetence and
bumbling pride. Yep, that's our boy. I think you've made your point, and I
enjoy the passage even more now that you've rammed the point
home....er....illustrated it so well.



On 5/2/07, robinlandseadel at comcast.net <robinlandseadel at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> Messed up my link, sorry:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/2b6voz
>
> Tore's linking of Jeshimon to "High Plains Drifter" is also quite on
> target. But this is far from the first time that Pynchon has expressed
> remarkably discouraging words about Republicans, in particular those
> with deep links to the "Military Industrial Complex." As I recall, the
> I. G. Farben material in GR all points directly to Herbert Walker and
> Prescott Bush, along with Dulles, Harriman and the creation of the C.I.A.
> Again, this link is provided to demonstrate how "The Governor" is a
> Satrical Caricature of "W".
>
> -------------- Original message ----------------------
> From: robinlandseadel at comcast.net
> >               So Reef passed beneath enormous wing-shadows,
> >        down the grim colonade, which, judging by the numbers,
> >        hadn't been that much of a deterrent. "No, quite the
> >        contrary," cheerfully admitted the Reverend Lube Carnal
> >        of the Second Lutheran (Missouri Synod) Church, "we
> >        attract evildoers from hundreds of miles around---not to
> >        mention clergy too o' course, like you wouldn't believe.
> >        You'll notice there's more churches here than saloons,
> >        making us unique in the Territory. Kind of professional
> >        challenge, get to their souls before the Governor gets to
> >        their necks."
> >               "The what?"
> >               "It's how he likes to be addressed. Thinks of this as
> >        his little state within a state. Whose main business you
> >        could say is the processing of souls."
> >
> > Of course, we are being given a guided tour of Hell here, what with
> > "wing-shadows", "the Reverend Lube Carnal ", "we attract evildoers from
> > hundreds of miles around", "processing of souls" and so forth, but the
> > "Governor" is a notably specific Satrical Caricature of a well known,
> > currenty active political figure:
> >
> > http://tinyurl.com/2u7ktk
> >
> > Charles Hollander has already given his take on Pynchon's take on
> Dante's
> > Inferno: . . .
> >
> > http://www.ottosell.de/pynchon/inferno.htm
> >
> > . . . . noting elsewhere how TRP's essential M.O. is satire, after all.
> . . .
> >
> > But let's move away from these potentially divisive "topicks heritical"
> for
> just
> > a moment and move on to note the even more black and fowle heresies
> > about to be committed to print after the next 10 pages---oh yes, ten is
> a
> > mighty important number 'round these parts, we're pretty firmly in
> Quaballah
> > Qountry now. The Beast who reveals himself on page 220 is (in the
> > imaginations of the locals being described the Jesimon episode), the
> very
> > Devil himself, absolute counterpoint to the Governor. Seeing the
> references
> > to "Fresno" and "Clovis" in the characters placed in this general locale
> of
> AtD
> > points to where these folk's offspring eventually planted themselves.
> The
> > Central Valley of California being the "Red" enclave within an otherwise
> > mostly blue state. There's yet another typically Pynchonian negative
> depiction
> > of "Christian" fundamentalism in these pages, and the Central Valley is
> > an epicenter for fundamentalism in the USA right now. "Maybe it's not
> the
> world,
> > but with a minor adjustment or two it's what the world might be."
>
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