Pynchon's Russia--US

[Joseph Tracy]

The Ginsberg poem seems awkward to me also. Perhaps trying to include child, illiterate american, not so bright american into a single querying voice? The him her confusion makes some sense since Russia is often called mother Russia but is dominated by men in modern history. But perhaps a failed try by the poet.
> On Jan 31, 2019, at 3:18 PM, Thomas Eckhardt <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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