ATDTDA (33) - p. 921-2 - anarchism

[braam van bruggen]

just a quick note - krupp metamorphosed into DEC (digital equipment 
corporation)
owned by the same people; or they are the same people...

Braam

---- Original Message ----- 
From: <kelber at mindspring.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 10:19 PM
Subject: ATDTDA (33) - p. 921-2 - anarchism


>
> Stray regretfully swaps Rodrigo for the scruffy, less sexually-appealing 
> Ewball Oust.  Oust agrees with Stray that it might be a good time to get 
> back into arms dealing.  Oust particularly hopes for the Krupp mountain 
> gun.
>
> http://www.spanamwar.com/spanishkrupp75.htm
>
> On the one hand, this was exactly what Ewball described it as: an easy to 
> break down artillery gun of the day.  But obviously the name Krupp is the 
> real point here:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krupp
>
> The Krupp family, A German industrial dynasty, started their business as a 
> simple steel foundry, branched out into munitions and railway manufacture 
> (the company logo up to the present day is based on railway wheels), 
> becoming Hitler's chief munitions manufacturer (with the help of slave 
> labor).
>
> Ewball gives his take on anarchists and their reputation as bomb-chuckers:
>
> "'There's plenty of folks who deserve to be blown up, to be sure,' opined 
> Ewball, 'but they've got to be gone after in a professional way, anything 
> else is being just like them, slaughterin the innocent, when what we need 
> is more slaughterin of the guilty.  Who gave the orders, who carried 'em 
> out, exact names and whereabouts – and then go get 'em.  That'd be just 
> honest soldiering.'"
>
> Is this Pynchon’s opinion?  I think it is, personally.  At least it's an 
> attitude that he has some sympathy for.
>
> Ewball continues:
>
> "' … the real nihilists are working for the owners, 'cause it's them that 
> don't believe in shit, our dead to them are nothing but dead, just one 
> more Bloody Shirt to wave at us, keep us doin what they want, but our dead 
> never stopped belonging to us, they haunt us every day, don't you see, and 
> we got to stay true, they wouldn't forgive us if we wandered off the 
> trail.'"
>
> This really gets to Frank.  It's been six years since he shot Sloat, and 
> Deuce, Vibe and Lake (whom Frank considers a collaborator) are still out 
> there.  He *has* wandered off the trail.
>
> There's a real tension here and throughout the book;
>
> Good guys like Webb and Ewball fighting for justice by violent means.  We 
> never really learn how many innocent lives Webb took in pursuit of 
> justice.  He seems to be blowing up railway and mining equipment.  Ewball 
> wants to concentrate on taking out specific bad guys (like Vibe and 
> Deuce).  He's opposed to indiscriminate bomb-tossing.
>
> Good guys like Reef and Kit strive for justice but are easily lured off 
> the trail.  Is it hedonism, or some innate humanism that draws them 
> astray?
>
> Frank is caught somewhere in the middle.  For him, being drawn astray 
> means being drawn Stay-wards, towards fighting for justice via violence 
> (or at least the enabling of violence).
>
> Laura
>
>
>
>