Back to AtD. Back to Frank,

[alice wellintown]

In the Mexican history the urban professionals are Madero Revolution &
Co., easy enough, but the fantasy of a liberal democracy extends
beyond the context, beyond Mexico and the event that Frank is in the
middle of. So, the urban professionals' fantacy is set against the
rural revolutionary reality. To argue that P sides with the violence
of the rural revolutionaries because he sides with their revolution is
a misreading.

But how can these better revolutionaries put away violence and bring
about the changes that their revolution promised? How do they bring
down those who used them, betrayed them, and now hold power?

Violence won't get the JOB done.

On Fri, Feb 22, 2013 at 12:13 PM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I am soon going to complicate this opinion, I think, as I continue to post.
> As with almost everything, he satirizes many stances, and unties the knots
> of a nuanced position.....(which doesn't preclude 'ambiguous'--in Empson's
> sense--nuances and therefore possible 'positions'....
> I think here he is scoring on 'some urban professionals' who call this Mexican-based
> Revolution, 'liberal democracy.
>
> I suggest, flame me now, suchas the Weather Underground and their self-justifications for
> violence are scored here....among others.....
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com>
> To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Cc:
> Sent: Friday, February 22, 2013 9:06 AM
> Subject: Re: Back to AtD. Back to Frank,
>
> This chapter is typical of P's lifting of history; we can certainly
> identify the author's norms here, his political and historical point
> of view is evident; this is especicially the case in the phrase "some
> urban professionals' fanasy of liberal democracy" as this phrase
> evokes, from P readers, a sardonic wit that is the author's style when
> he provides commentary, and is  fundamentally Marxists to left-wing
> Anarchist in view, that is, his take on the historical events lifted
> from the pages of history, briefly sketeched, are sifted through P's
> critical sieve to expose the norms he proejects and evokes throught
> the novel, and these are consistant with the argument that P adopts
> after GR, as he turns his attention more and more to the stuggle of
> workers, to labor, and argues that a liberal democracy can not succeed
> under capitalism because  capitalism is class-based and therefore can
> never be democratic or even participatory.
>
> These are the politics of P. Not difficult to find. His norms are
> there in the commentary, in his selections of historical events, and,
> yes, even in his characters, in this case, Frank, who, though a pawn
> on P's chessboard, is moved on and in the squares of history.
>
> Of course, Pynchon is not commenting on Ahab, or Pyncheon, but the
> tale of land taken, haunted by the ghosts of the oppressed and
> murdered is more than mere allusion or favorable parody, but directs
> us to land issues that saturate, still, the geo-political conficts
> from Mexico to Brazil, and, of course, back to the States, and the
> lines, signaled up, and cut into the Earth...and so on.