the draft

[rich]

if Pynchon advocated such direct action it would make him sound like a
hypocrite, but I agree actis of hidden resistance sounds about right
to me--reminds me of the story of the couple in Nazi Germany who sent
out postcards anonymously  to strangers telling them of the evils of
the regime (basis for a now translated novel into English We All Die
Alone I think its called)

rich


On 3/3/09, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> Pynchon exhibits many ranges of resistance from power in his many
> characters in all his books.  Those that fight power most directly
> usually end up as martyrs, so I'd say he doesn't advocate that method.
>  Or at least he demonstrates the inevitable result of that method.  I
> would say he advocates hidden/guerrilla resistance, as in the "keep
> cool but care" removal of carburetors from offending bulldozers, or
> the off-the-grid resistance he champions in his "Stone Junction"
> intro.  But this kind of individual resistance will at best only slow
> down the overwhelming power of the real powers.
>
> http://www.themodernword.com/Pynchon/pynchon_essays_stone.html
>
> David Morris
>
> On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 12:15 PM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> I might want to suggest we generalize Joseph's ending this way (re
>> Pynchon's 'vision' in VL):
>>
>> TRP seems to have this "direct declaration of independence" [JT]; this
>> effort to not be tread on
>> underlies VL in some way?........That is, Don't betray and don't be a
>> Thanatoid (in LK's meanings).....
>>
>> Not prescriptive by TRP in VL, of course, but the pattern in the vines, so
>> to speak.....the pattern
>> in the sunlight between the vines, so to overspeak.
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----
>> From: Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>
>> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>> Sent: Tuesday, March 3, 2009 12:35:20 PM
>> Subject: the draft
>>
>> I think I misstated my intended argument by using the word draft. That is
>> too narrow. What I really meant was the power of a nation to compel
>> compliance with its military aggression. This includes taxes, media
>> propaganda, and the draft or other recruitment tools. In this case it was
>> about Vietnam. The Nixon statue in VL is in black and white marble and
>> faces inward. Pretty loaded imagery.  At the same time we were properly
>> criticizing the Soviet countries for trapping their citizens, the US had
>> elected a man associated with mass fear mongering about "the enemy
>> within". Vond reveals this binary good vs evil mentality when he calls the
>> PR3 a mini Marxist state, a patently absurd characterization  . What I
>> meant about the draft card burning was that it was a direct declaration of
>> independence:You don't own my ass; I am not going to be a weapon for the
>> empire.  To assert these things is as American as Yankee Doodle and Don't
>> tread on me and as
>>  revolutionary as ever.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>