BtZ42 Section six. PP 38-42 (miller edition)

[John Bailey]

When I first read this part of GR in my 20s I thought Roger and
Jessica were the kind of fictional couple meant to offer hope or at
least some optimism for the reader. "They are in love. Fuck the war."
That now seems to me more ironic. Hollywood love is not an effective
anti-war strategy. Connect with AN ARMY OF LOVERS CAN BE BEATEN,
later. Or how Pirate, who we might figure is our hero at first,
becomes so sexually/politically manipulable so quickly. How so many of
these players are sexual marionettes!

I'm not arguing that Pynchon is arguing anything, but read in the
light of 1970s free love and the political shit going on and the
uneasy relationships between the sexual revolution and feminism and I
feel this whole thread of the novel records a pulse we have yet to
gauge.

On Wed, Apr 20, 2016 at 8:30 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> Not much happens, but a fair amount gets stated (framed). Roger & Jessica are driving east to meet Pointsman and be part of his dognapping scheme. But they "want to be together, in bed, at rest, in love" ( tied up at the end of the section with another scene of being together, "touches and looks, smiles together, curses for parting".   This ending with the memorable "they are in love. Fuck the war". )
> We get the flashback story of their cute meet. Busted bike, slip and thighs showing, rom com initial put downs (P has signaled the Hollywood lensing) bike smashed and she's " in his power."
> UTTERLY. (But Roger knows she isn't)
> Then a rocket lands. The War intrudes.
> We learn more about Roger ( which we will get to elsewhere)
> Then we are with First Responders and the bombed.
> "War's state"
> Roger is part of The White Visitation and The Home Front is..."fiction and a lie".
> Fuck the war.
>
> Sent from my iPhone-
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l