the draft

[Robin Landseadel]

On Mar 3, 2009, at 1:58 PM, rich wrote:

>> . . . this kind of individual resistance will at best only slow
>> down the overwhelming power of the real powers . . .


. . . the usual suspects, gravity, entropy, levity, life . . .

Pynchon inevitably takes all powers to their next step: Gods,  
Goddesses, "Forces Unseen", those powers deployed by wizards &  
T.W.I.T.S., Yoyodyne & I.G. Farben, Pointsman, Rocketman. The question  
of the meaning of power hovers over all of Pynchon's works:

	"Moms are a mixed blessing," Che announced.
	
	"Rilly. But try having that part of your life missing."

	"You'd love it in the joint, Prair, 'cz that's exactly what the girls
	are into, 's that hookin' up together in threes, one's the Mommy,
	one's the Daddy, and one's the little child - hard, soft, and
	helpless. I figure, what's the difference, bein' in a family out
	here, or being in the joint? Is why I've got this need to escape all
	the time, especially now .... You remember Lucky's collection of
	Elvis decanters, 'member his favorite, with the sour mash in it,
	that he only brought out for Super Bowl and his birthday? sort of
	full-color metalflake glaze on it?"

	"Don't tell me-"

	"Put it this way - that old Patsy Cline song 'I Fall to Pieces'?

	Well, the King just covered it."`
	Vineland, page 330
	

On Mar 3, 2009, at 1:58 PM, rich wrote:

>>> 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.

	Dixon does recall a band of Riders, cloak'd and mask'd, who
	clamor'd into Raby in the middle of the night. "I was watching
	from a Pantry window, down at Fetlock-Ievel. ... Boots, the Hems
	of Cloaks,- Tartan Patterns flashing ev'rywhere, tho' the Colors
	in that light were uncertain. Even now I believe that it was he .. .
	I could feel.. . something of such Moment.. . such high Purpose
	.. I  knelt, transfix'd. I would have done whatever he bade me.
	'Twas the only time in my life I have felt that Surrender to Power,
	upon which, as I have learn'd after, to my Sorrow, all
	Government is founded. Never again. No more a Maiden as to
	thah', and thankee all the same."
	Mason & Dixon, page 312