RE: VL-IV (15): Ché For Children, pages 325/327

[Henry Musikar]

http://www.johnross-rebeljournalist.com/JRbio.html 
John Ross has written eight books of fiction and non-fiction.  "Murdered By 
Capitalism" (Nation Books 2004) is partially a personal history of 40 years
on the 
barricades of the Americas north and south, and partially the strange story
of the U.
S. Left during the past century and a half. "(Murdered by Capitalism) is a
rip-
snorting and honorable account of an outlaw tradition in American politics
which too 
seldom gets past the bouncers at the gates of our national narrative" wrote
reclusive 
novelist Thomas Pynchon of the work.

Henry Mu

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
Of Robin Landseadel
Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2009 1:55 PM
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: VL-IV (15): Ché For Children, pages 325/327

On Apr 8, 2009, at 10:33 AM, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:

> I think Pynchon would put alcohol in the marijuana and psychedelics  
> group (thinking of Slothrop and that beer-drinking game.

Judging from John Ross comments in "Murdered by Capitalism", Pynchon  
has no problem putting alcohol into himself:

	Sasha Berkman and Timothy Leary
	smoked a joint and got terribly cheery,
	Zippy the Pinhead and the Molly McGuires
	roasted Pigasis over the bonfire,
	"No pork!" Bob Dylan and Ralph Nader protested,
	"Como no!" Sub Marcos and the SLA contested.
	Dorothy Day lay with the Weather Underground.
	Patty Hearst and Bishop Romero even got down,
	Wilhelm Reich invited Hegel to his orgone box,
	rocked the old philosopher down to his socks,
	Houdini taught George and Jonathan to disappear,
	Thomas Pynchon polished the last keg of beer,
	but just as the party was getting a bit old,
	our numbers were increased one-hundred fold:
	Marcus, Malcolm, Martin, Meredith, and Medgar
	marched with their bones tethered together,
	Peltier and Crazy Horse came to take back the land
	from the redwood forest to the New York Island,
	its all yours, sang Cisco and 01' Woody Guthrie,
	Mario Savio was one of the first to agree,
	Me too! yodeled Che G. high up a redwood tree.
	"Murdered By Capitalism," page 343

On the one hand, this riff is a flight of fancy. On the other, there's  
internal evidence that the two authors know each other.