Re: Days of Future Past — Part III

[Robin Landseadel]

Excellent article, excellent commentary on government control that  
effectively and accurately illuminates Pynchon's thoughts on Rex 84  
and suchlike.
On Jul 5, 2009, at 6:53 AM, Dave Monroe wrote:

> Days of Future Past — Part III
> July 4th, 2009 by The Agonist - thoughtful, global, timely
>
>
> In Parts I & II we looked back on days past . . .

http://malarkynews.com/2009/07/days-of-future-past-part-iii/

I've been thinking of the Estate of Michael Jackson, and how it  
operates in Pynchon's larger story. Bob Herbert at the NYT folds the  
Mindless Pleasures of the Gloved One into the larger narrative of a  
world seduced by the tube:

	All kinds of restraints were coming off. It was almost as if the
	adults had gone into hiding. The deregulation that we were told
	would be great for the economy was being applied to the
	culture as a whole. Women could be treated as sex objects
	again as misogyny, hardly limited to hip-hop, went mainstream.
	(Have you looked at network television lately, or listened to the
	radio?) Astonishing numbers of men abandoned their children
	with impunity. Most of the nation seemed fine with the idea of
	going to war without a draft and without raising taxes.

	In many ways we descended as a society into a fantasyland,
	trying to leave the limits and consequences and obligations of
	the real world behind. Politicians stopped talking about the
	poor. We built up staggering amounts of debt and called it an
	economic boom. We shipped jobs overseas by the millions
	without ever thinking seriously about how to replace them. We
	let New Orleans drown.

	Jackson was the perfect star for the era, the embodiment of
	fantasy gone wild. He tried to carve himself up into another
	person, but, of course, there was the same Michael Jackson
	underneath — talented but psychologically disabled to the point
	where he was a danger to himself and others.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/04/opinion/04herbert.html?_r=5&em

Michael reminds me of the character in V. who was replacing her "real  
body" with synthetic parts. His name also rings a loud bell with the  
phrase "Capitalism & Schizophrenia." I've been blogging altogether too  
much concerning MJ's demise, but was left with a phrase that applies  
to the Crying of Lot 49: a graveyard full of toys.