V-2nd - Chapter V, Part I

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Also reminds me, in tone, and somewhat in subject-matter (soldiers on a quirky, less-than-heroic mission) of his Slow Learner story, The Small Rain.

LK

-----Original Message-----
>From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
>Sent: Aug 9, 2010 7:05 PM
>To: kelber at mindspring.com
>Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: Re: V-2nd - Chapter V, Part I
>
>Yes and I'd argue that this chapter is also, in P's way, a parody of Great White 
>Hunterness...
>
>
>
>----- Original Message ----
>From: "kelber at mindspring.com" <kelber at mindspring.com>
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Sent: Mon, August 9, 2010 4:52:07 PM
>Subject: V-2nd - Chapter V, Part I
>
>Don't know if Joseph Tracy's able to take on his hosting duties.  In the 
>meantime ...
>
>Chapter V, Part I contains the most oft-referenced section of the book:  the 
>alligator hunt.  
>
>
>Here's a web site exclusively devoted to all things alligator-in-the-sewer:
>
>http://www.sewergator.com/
>
>Like the Esther's nose-job sequence, it seems kind of written to stand on its 
>own.  And there's not much here about the clash between the human and the 
>inanimate.  Instead, Pynchon's introducing a theme that's going to become a 
>major one later in the book (Chapter 9 - descriptions of the Herero Massacre)and 
>throughout the rest of his works:  colonization, leading to genocide.
>
>Here's a priest (and "At no point ... did it occur to anyone to question the old 
>priest's sanity")intent on converting those who cannot or will not be 
>converted.  And, as it goes in such situations, unless the locals renounce their 
>culture and convert to their conquerors' "faith," there's nothing left but to 
>hunt them down and shoot them.  Enter Profane, foot soldier in an imperialist 
>war against rodent and reptile alike. One can argue (all right, I'm arguing) 
>that Christian missionaries, bibles-in-hand, have been as destructive a force in 
>decimating local cultures as their military brothers-in-arms.
>
>This is the beginnings of Pynchon's method of eloquently underplaying the 
>horrific to make a gut-wrenching point.  
>
>
>MB
>DRO
>ROSHI,
>
>indeed.
>
>Laura
>
>
>
>