VLVL (13) - Cesare Lombroso

[kelber at mindspring.com]

 By casting Vond as a latter-day proponent of Lombroso, Pynchon's going all out in portraying Vond as across-the-board pure EVIL. Lombroso gets mentioned a few times in ATD: (p. 172, 252, 606), but the EVIL Vibe isn't tagged as a disciple. Vibe, the robber--baron capitalist, isn't necessarily racist:  he's more than happy to exploit and kill white people.  Capitalists will exploit anyone and sell to anyone - racism isn't crucial to profit margins.  Vond's a government-variety fascist.  His interests lie in power and control, and Lombroso's theories work well in the fascist police state of his dreams.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Richard Ryan <richardryannyc at yahoo.com>
>Sent: Mar 9, 2009 12:26 AM
>To: Pynchon-L <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: VLVL (13) - Cesare Lombroso
>
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Lombroso
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>Cesare Lombroso, born Ezechia Marco Lombroso (November 6, 1835 – October 19, 1909) was a Jewish-Italian criminologist and founder of the Italian School of Positivist Criminology. Lombroso rejected the established Classical School, which held that crime was a characteristic trait of human nature. Instead, using concepts drawn from physiognomy, early eugenics, psychiatry and Social Darwinism, Lombroso's theory of anthropological criminology essentially stated that criminality was inherited, and that someone "born criminal"' could be identified by physical defects, which confirmed a criminal as savage, or atavistic....
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