the draft

[John Bailey]

I can't remember where I heard someone discussing how "peace" time is
marked by preparations for war - making war seem attractive through
films, a reverence for uniforms, etc. It sounded very Pynchonian
(maybe it was someone here).

I think it might have been Margaret Atwood's Massey lectures though -
http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/massey.html

They're about the notion of debt as a structure, "from human sacrifice
to pawnshops to revenge." Good listening in the context of VL.

On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 8:58 AM, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >