Pynchon's Russia--US

[jbloocher at gmail.com]

I was actually really disappointed reading the Ginsberg. I haven’t read any since I was a late teenager and of course had a passion for such things, or rather he was on my list to ‘complete’. Reading this now seems hackneyed and trying. And I don’t even like the sound of the words. I do feel that Thomas is right in terms of him speaking with the voice of the uneducated (I can’t say with regards to African American lingo, as I am really clueless). From an emotional and personal perspective it grates as I can’t think of a people or place I love more than Russians and Russia (for reasons that would take me so very long to put down.)

Blooch

Sent from my iPhone

> On 1 Feb 2019, at 05:58, Jochen Stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Re him/her: "I will continue like Henry Ford my strophes are as individual
> as his automobiles more so they’re all different sexes."
> 
> Reading the poem I get the impression that he was high while he wrote it
> and didn't change anything afterwards, after January 17, 1956.
> 
> Thanks for it anyway, Thomas!
> 
>> Am Fr., 1. Feb. 2019 um 02:45 Uhr schrieb Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>:
>> 
>> OK, I’ll bite. The general impression P gives of Russians is cynical
>> acceptance of corruption where resistance takes the form of monkey
>> wrenching and watching out for yourself and those you care about. There is
>> a certain feeling of waiting for big systems to fail even more completely
>> apart, but only  the barest hints of  hope for positive revolutionary
>> changes, and I may be imagining that. Could be interesting to look more
>> closely at the texts themselves. There is a weird consistency between the
>> Russians in GR and BE, no?
>>  The Russians I am closest to are different. Very honest, good to their
>> employees, believers in democracy, intensely family oriented, but lots of
>> individual differences. I think P leaves out the weird influence of Russian
>> Orthodoxy on many Russsians in the Russians he chooses to personify.
>>> On Jan 31, 2019, at 3:42 PM, Thomas Eckhardt <
>> thomas.eckhardt at uni-bonn.de> wrote:
>>> 
>>> And, of course, in GR...
>>> 
>>>> Am 31.01.2019 um 21:41 schrieb Mark Kohut:
>>>> And in AtD....
>>>> On Thu, Jan 31, 2019 at 3:20 PM Thomas Eckhardt <
>> thomas.eckhardt at uni-bonn.de <mailto:thomas.eckhardt at uni-bonn.de>> wrote:
>>>>   The ending of VL comes to mind. And, of course, the Russians in BE.
>>>>   Could be interesting to have a closer look.
>>>>   Here is Allen Ginsberg on the subject:
>>>>   "America you don’t really want to go to war.
>>>>   America its them bad Russians.
>>>>   Them Russians them Russians and them Chinamen. And them Russians.
>>>>   The Russia wants to eat us alive. The Russia’s power mad. She wants
>> to
>>>>   take our cars from out our garages.
>>>>   Her wants to grab Chicago. Her needs a Red Reader’s Digest. Her wants
>>>>   our auto plants in Siberia. Him big bureaucracy running our
>>>>   fillingstations.
>>>>   That no good. Ugh. Him make Indians learn read. Him need big black
>>>>   niggers. Hah. Her make us all work sixteen hours a day. Help.
>>>>   America this is quite serious.
>>>>   America this is the impression I get from looking in the television
>> set.
>>>>   America is this correct?"
>>>>   https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49305/america-56d22b41f119f
>>>>   (Why the peculiar grammar? At the beginning, with "Them Russians", it
>>>>   appears to be a satirical jibe at not particularly bright
>> US-Americans
>>>>   watching the news on the TV set, but "That no good" is Black
>>>>   Vernacular,
>>>>   no? And "Her"?)
>>>>   For those in the Midwest: Keep warm!
>>>>>   Am 28.01.2019 um 12:43 schrieb Mark Kohut:
>>>>> First, sorry that this scan of the picture is sideways....I
>>>>   thought I could
>>>>> turn it right side up but I don't know how.Just turn your head a
>>>>   little--or
>>>>> your phone/computer, haha.
>>>>>  Second, remember *The Realist *rag?---if you are old enough.
>>>>> Third and most substantively, and the reason I scanned this,
>>>>   think about P
>>>>> and his oeuvre-length geopolitical doubling of the USA and
>>>>   Russia-- and
>>>>> here, in 1962, The Cold War about to have its hottest
>>>>   moments....and what a
>>>>> cartoon, eh?
>>>>> 
>>>>> From a paperback of the sixties, THE NEW RADICALS, a collection.
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> Please open the attached document. It was scanned and sent to you
>>>>   using a
>>>>> Xerox WorkCentre. For more information on Xerox products and
>>>>   solutions,
>>>>> please visit http://www.xerox.com.
>>>>> --
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>>>>> 
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