History's hiccup - Princip Returns?

[Mark Kohut]

I love LOVE this Matthew......and as literary reading and "criticism"...

Just have the barest first thing to say: I too thought of AtD when first
learning
about the alleged shooter.....

On Tue, Dec 10, 2024 at 6:35 AM matthew cissell <mccissell at gmail.com> wrote:

> Howdy folks,
>
> Hey, anybody in here? Sure is quiet. Smells 'bout the same though. Has
> everybody packed up and moved over to Fauxbook, sorry, Metiocre? Me? I'm
> more of a muta kinda guy. (Wha'? Got no Muta? Jump on yo scoota and go find
> the Man with Muggles!)
>
> Are we still down about the soft coup? Yes, it is sickening to be trapped
> on a bigger version of the Titanic, and watching the derelict Capt. order
> the Band to play on. We're not that much better off over here in Europe.
> Fascism is having quite the heyday. And some fools act surprised. Didn't
> they understand Albert when he said that the rats would return?
>
> I get it that back in August you were busy so you might have missed the
> story about the British tech entrepreneur (Mike Lynch) and his boat getting
> hit by a cyclone off the coast of Italy, killing him and 5 others. But
> shouldn't that send up a little *V.* resonance alert? I know, very
> different boats and occupants.
>
> On the other hand, the health care CEO being gunned down in NY last week
> should have prompted the AtD fans to take note. I'm not here to write one
> of those, "I don't condone violence, but..." mini-rants. Let's just take a
> minute to appreciate the echo (or is it a rhyme? Certainly not repetition,
> unless it is the repetition - avec différance - of the repressed repetition
> of the name of the Father as the petit objet of the Nomic Cloud of the
> tomorrow that is always not quite becoming now....) Did I just go Theory?
> Sorry, just goes to show that electro-shock and the rest can't make all the
> bad stuff go away.
>
> Assuming the guy they have (Luigi) is the culprit - he was carrying a copy
> of his manifesto? I can see conspiracy threads spinning - it does seem a
> push to make him out as Princip or even Sacco and Vanzetti. He comes from a
> wealthy family, went to a private school, worked as a data engineer... that
> doesn't sound like anarchist material. He apparently gave a positive review
> to Teddy K's manifesto, but then again so would I if I posted things like
> that. Now the media can do its shitshow and experts can speculate about
> moitve. TLC, Showtime and The History Channel will brawl (lawyers and other
> weapons to be employed) to get the rights. And maybe he'll "tell it all" in
> an exclusive with Geraldo Rivera. He'll explain that after an
> ayahuasca ceremony he came to see the golden wheel he was on inside the
> greater cage of humanity and came to hate the Misery Machine and its
> plutocrat architects, and decided to send one down to Hades in an attempt
> to redeem his soul and even the karmic balance.
>
> Maybe I should focus on the book, keep it literary. If you did some basic
> Shakespeare study, the profesor (or book) probably talked about how Hamlet
> is waiting; he has to be sure that his Uncle is guilty and his Uncle has to
> die knowing why he is being killed, that's why Hamlet doesn't kill him at
> prayer: "am I then revenged/ To take him in the purging of his soul,/
> When he is fit and seasoned for his passage?"
> In other words, violence, if it must be done, must be done right, but even
> then there is a price to pay. Hamlet may avenge his father's death but it
> will seal his own fate. Notice that in his work, Pynchon is also very
> careful of who employs deadly violence and why. The attempted assaination
> of Scarsdale Vibe reflects the historical reality of anarchists and others
> trying to kill people in positions of power, but it also serves as a
> cautionary tale. If you pick up a gun, they will happily respond with bombs
> or worse. I'm not familiar enough with the work of various scholars that
> have focused on the use of violence by protagonists in Pynchon's books so I
> can't recommend a related essay. In my opinion, AtD doesn't really advocate
> violence toward the Capital Class. However, it does seem to indicate that
> it is a very real scenario for those that have foreclosed on the happiness,
> opportunities and future of the downtrodden and unborn.
>
> And with all that in mind, James wood should write a statement of apology.
> Scarsdale Vibe is fairly realistic,  albeit exaggerated no doubt as one
> would expect in satire. Vibe shot an old lady. Trump said he could shoot
> somebody. Vibe has no taste. (This is a wonderful expression of how
> Economic Capital can be used to acquire the objects of taste - i.e. a
> painting, etc. - but that same EC cannot be converted into Cultural Capital
> [good taste as defined by legitimization conferred by institutions, people,
> etc.] in the way that Cultural Capital can be converted into EC.) In the
> 70's Pynchon wrote a book that used WWII as a vehicle to criticize the war
> (and more) being waged at that time. Is it a stretch to think that his 2006
> publication used the Belle Epoque period to address many of the ills that
> have been growing and ongoing into the present and foreseeable future? (If
> you have read Picketty's "Capital in the 21st Century", that will make more
> sense.) Sadly, though, James Wood is simply too blind to see his own error
> and too arrogant to recognize it once it has been pointed out to him.
>
> Fire the bastards - indeed.
>
> We will now return to our regular programming. Now up, The Lawrence Welk
> Show with Special Guest Barbara Mandell
>
> ciao
> mc otis
> --
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>