ATDTDA (23): "the gringo population ..." (639.10)

[Mark Kohut]

Paranoid rest the gringkos, in a wonderfully written paragraph about who holds the (illegitimate) power and their [grinkgos] awareness of that
and their fear of it being taken away, righteously, perhaps rightfully, perhaps violently.

When you work for Big Oil, it is in your eyes.....anyone else think of the windmill in Blicero's eyes here?....

And TRP has these Oil workers condemned for unremembered offenses......just being there, part of the exploitation yet probably most themeselves
being exploited by their bosses.........

Yes?  


----- Original Message ----
From: Tim Strzechowski <dedalus204 at comcast.net>
To: Pynchon-L <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Monday, November 26, 2007 8:53:23 PM
Subject: ATDTDA (23): "the gringo population ..." (639.10)


"Away to the west and the Sierra, in grand residences faintly visible through the mists that rose from the malarial lowlands, the gringo population cringed on top of their breezy river-bluffs, waiting for the native uprising they all believed imminent, as they lay supine in their bedrooms night after night, beset, in the few hours of sleep they did find, by near identical nightmares of desert flight, pitiless skies, faces in which not only the irises but the entire surfaces of eyes were black, glistening in the sockets, implacable, reflecting columns of flame as wells blazed and exploded, nothing ahead but exile, loss, disgrace, no future anyplace north of the Rio Bravo, voices invisible out in the oil-reek, from out of the diseased canals, accusing, arraigning, promising retribution for offenses unremembered. . . ." (p. 639)
 
 
A fascinating description that seems somewhat out-of-place in the brief 638-39 section, mostly due to the foreboding Cormac McCarthy tone ("nightmares of desert flight," "pitiless skies," "voices invisible," etc.) that arises in contrast to the earlier section of dialogue between Frank, Gunther, and Ewball.
 
I use the comparison with McCarthy loosely -- striving mainly to evoke that sense of desert desolation and aggressive Nature -- since so much of McCarthy's beauty comes from the use of diction and syntax *much* simpler than what Pynchon uses here.  For example, I don't hear McCarthy using inverted syntax like "voices invisible."
 
So, what do we make of this paragraph?  Is this description of the "gringo population" in its "grand residences," laying fearful of the native uprising (which is seemingly all in their perception anyways), an example of social commentary ... and, if so, is this something he's addressing toward the time period in question, or something applicable today (like his obvious dig at Starbucks/Arbuckle's on p. 638)?


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