Kick-Ass Thank You

[kelber at mindspring.com]

All right, maybe this is over-extrapolating, but if the Western sequences of ATD are "about" America:

Webb represents anarchism, rebellion, militant labor.  Lake represents the death of all these. Where Webb was busy dynamiting the powers that be and their interests, Lake passively gives herself over to Deuce and Sloat, hirelings of the mine owners.  In Europe, the socialist parties capitulated to nationalism and capitalism at the advent of WWI.  Lake does the same.  The militant Wobblies at the beginning of the 20th century devolved to the current US union movement, hobbled (like Deuce and Sloat hobble Lake) by punitive anti-strike clauses and the Taft-Hartley Act, to become one of the most passive and non-militant working classes in world history.  When we last meet Lake in the book, she's a bitter, helpless, sterile old woman.  John Sweeney, anyone?

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Tore Rye Andersen <torerye at hotmail.com>

>
>Laura: Your comparison between Lake and Gottfried as passive intermediaries 
>is a great one. I still think Gottfried is much more interesting than Lake, 
>however: His passivity is part of a larger, historical framework, namely 
>Pynchon's examination of the (German) mentality which made WW2 possible 
>(Pökler is part of this same examination, as is all the Kracauer-derived 
>stuff about German movies). I can't really find any such validating 
>framework for the shallow portrayal of Lake in AtD. It might be there, but 
>I've yet to see it.
>I absolutely agree about the difference between Lake's and Cyprian's 
>intermediary roles, BTW.
>
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