Gold standard -(Was Nixonian currency)

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Pynchon mentions both gold and silver in ATD, usually lumping them together.  They belong to the people, in the sense of the Gold Rush and the Pro-silver movement, but are sources of oppression when worked in the mines for the Owners.   Any metal (or organic compound) in the hands of the rich becomes a source of oppression.

(ATD,pp. 89-90):  "After 1893, after the whole nation, one way or another, had been put through a tiresome moral exercise over the repeal of the Silver Act, ending with the Gold Standard reclaiming its ancient tyranny, it was slow times for a while, and Webb and the family moved around a lot ..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Silver

The Gold Standard is way too complex to be treated as a simple Left/Right issue.  Which is why a lot of progressives were left scratching their heads over the Nixon policies back in the day.

TRP seems to weigh in on the side of Silver, though, in terms of photographic applications.  

Laura



>
>On Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 1:12 PM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> Agreed.  So where do you think 'gold' and the 'gold standard" lay within TRPs vision?  here in IV and elswhere...
>
>Way back in V and GR his "vision" of the human condition (and
>modern-man being the extreme case) was neurosis per Freud and NO
>Brown.  The fetishes of V (replacement of living parts/beings with
>inanimate objects) and GR (worship of the anti-phallus Rocket) are
>manifestations of the analysis below.  I suspect he has moved on from
>this stark analysis.  But this was clearly a part of his initial
>inspiration.
>
>David Morris