Is CoL49 essentially a "blueprint for all conspiracy theories"?
Mark Kohut
mark.kohut at gmail.com
Fri May 22 11:39:22 UTC 2020
Yes, this is very interesting conceptualizing and answering. On one level I
see Rich's point and like Thomas's
answer.....
However, on another level, I keep seeing what else there is in Lot 49
besides "knotted unknowable conspiracies"
The critique of the conspiracy that America was then, this novel is
grounded in history despite everything else...
"Young Republicans', the Indian killer, the John Birch Society sea-changed,
and most, as the overarching metaphor,
the counter culture that comes alive while the Unified Nation of the
official Post Office of America no longer is
the way the best Americans communicate. 1965-66 in the United States..
On Thu, May 21, 2020 at 5:03 PM Thomas Eckhardt <thomas.eckhardt at uni-bonn.de>
wrote:
> Am 20.05.2020 um 23:05 schrieb rich:
> > Is he just depressed how things have gotten steadily worse or is it
> > one of those I told you so attitudes as he in the latest works after
> > M&D that moved away from knotted unknowable conspiracies to more
> > direct critiques of power in AtD and onwards.
>
> This is an interesting point. I believe the turn from "knotted
> unknowable conspiracies", which are tied to religious/philosophical
> concepts, towards "more direct critiques of power" takes place in VL.
> The more direct critiques of power are already present in the historical
> research for GR (e.g. Operation Paperclip) and the intimations of
> MK-ULTRA in COL49 but the more philosophical notions of "either
> everything is connected or nothing is" and about the human need to make
> sense of the world, see patterns and apply meanings are gone in VL. What
> comes into focus now are proven conspiracies/covert political operations
> like Iran-Contra and REX 84, the CIA's Operation CHAOS or the FBI's
> COINTELPRO and the consequences of these covert operations for
> individual lives.
>
> --
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