Mapping the World: Thomas Pynchon's Global Novels

[rich]

>
>
> The other day, I wrote here that Beckert's Empire of Cotton helps to frame
> important themes of "P's grandest narrative, which is really *everything*
> that boiled out of Europe across five other continents -- plus the
> occasional Vheissu and Vormance ventures -- from 1500 to 2000." That's
> still Eurocentric, but I don't think many Asians, Africans, Australians,
> and non-US Western Hemisphereans would deny that much of their history over
> these centuries was importantly, often decisively *knotted into* that of
> Europe and, more recently, the US.
>

In most cases that knotting into had serious and ugly repercussions for the
third world w/r/t to colonialism, imperialism and later global capital.
conventional wisdom we all are on board. What makes all of this interesting
today is the unique nature of Saudi Arabia whose internal cultural beliefs,
biases and obsessions were not much changed by outside forces, Wahhabism
was ever the stronger . Its arch enemy Iran flipped the script by expelling
those outside forces in 1979. Israel too has its religious fanatics now,
many in the settler movement consider Bibi a sell-out which is a bit of
poetic justice considering how he feed the fire resulting in Rabin's
assassination.
I guess what Im saying is despite the effects of empire and global capital
and all that he's demonstrated, how does someone like Pynchon address this
situation since it would appear he's said what he had to say colonialsm
beyond the alluded to dreams of small-scale utopias whether it be
anarchism, deep archer, etc.



rich
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