Pynchon's back catalogue

[Tore Rye Andersen]

Rob Jackson:
 
> The idea of a "World Historical Project" as you've set it out is a  
> somewhat Eurocentric approach, one which I'd argue is anathema to  
> Pynchon's historical sensibilities as evidenced in both GR and M&D.
 
Well, sorry to be the one to break it to you, but the majority of GR,
a third of M&D and about half of AtD takes place in old Yurrup. And who 
would really deny that those three novels describe what Yurrup, and later
its cousin America has been doing to the world these past 250 years? 
 
If my idea of a "World Historical Project" is Eurocentric,
it is because the world's history of the past couple-three hundred years has, sad
to say, largely been dictated by old, corrupted Yurrup, and in the 20th century by
America. Those historical cusps may have originated in Europe, but they have had
major consequences for the rest of the world, as I'm sure you wouldn't deny.
Those three novels primarily describe the march of Modernity and what it has
been doing to the globe (and what it has forced out of existence). A-and where
would you say Modernity originates? Look it up, it's in the history books.
 
When Pynchon writes about other areas of the globe, about Hereros and Kirghiz, it is 
almost always to show us how we/Modernity have corrupted them, imposed our empire of 
analysis and death. There is no doubt where his sympathies lie, of course, but he 
keeps coming back to the Old World, and the New World which grew out of it.
Does describing this historical process make Pynchon a Eurocentric writer? Does
describing this crucial  feature of Pynchon's largest novels make me Eurocentric? 
If it does, I'll proudly wear that label.
 
Tore
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