IVIV (0) Vietnam (Was: Basterds)

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

What's astonishing to me is that the whole dimension of technology is left
out. They simply didn't have napalm in old Atlantis --

Kai

" ... with Nixon a descendant of Atlantis just as Ho Chi Minh was
of Lemuria ..." (p. 109)

>
> The "war in Indochina" is also discussed extensively on p. 108-09, in
> Doc's acid trip, where we learn that the U.S. is not fighting in Indochina
> "out of free will but in fact repeating a karmic loop as old as the
> geography of those oceans" u.s.w.
>

----------------------------------------
> From: torerye at hotmail.com
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: IVIV (0) Vietnam (Was: Basterds)
> Date: Fri, 21 Aug 2009 23:06:40 +0200
>
>
> Doug:
>
>> By the way, where's the Vietnam War in IV? I'll be watching closely
>> on my 2nd time through, but the War seemed to manifest mainly in the
>> form of marijuana smoke in IV. Remind me of what I'm forgetting or
>> missed in the first place.
>
> As John points out, Sortilége's boyfriend Spike was in Vietnam and
> discusses his experience with Doc (p. 103). After returning to the
> World, Spike is paranoid about running into hippies, who'll think him
> yet another baby killer and "try to work some sinister hippie mischief
> against him," so he compensates by "frantically trying to assimilate
> into the freak culture." Basically, Spike and his fellow veterans just
> want to have an "unhassled civilian afterlife" (104) and are portrayed
> sympathecially. IV is pretty forgiving in that sense; not towards the
> war itself, but towards the boys who were sent to fight it.
>
> The "war in Indochina" is also discussed extensively on p. 108-09, in
> Doc's acid trip, where we learn that the U.S. is not fighting in Indochina
> "out of free will but in fact repeating a karmic loop as old as the
> geography of those oceans" u.s.w.
>
> Plus which, Lourdes' and Motella's boyfriends Cookie and Joaquin are also
> "newly out of Vietnam, back in the World" (80), where they pursue their
> shady deals with phony U.S. currency (which ties in with the Golden Fang).
>
> And I'm sure there's more. The Vietnam War is not protrusive in IV, but
> neither is it in any way absent.
> _________________________________________________________________