CoL49 - anarchy

David Morris fqmorris at gmail.com
Thu Jun 20 00:40:43 UTC 2024


Oooo!  Wrong book, but I like the start of this!  I did a Reddit read of
ATD a year ago, so it is still fresh(ish).

On Wed, Jun 19, 2024 at 8:38 PM J K Van Nort via Pynchon-l <
pynchon-l at waste.org> wrote:

> Webb’s death at the hands of Sloat and Deuce reveals what? They were hired
> by the mine owners.
>
> Any violence that the Traverses contributed pales in comparison to the
> mine owners, bankers, and railroad barons.
>
> Did I read a different book? Noble may be hyperbole, but Pynchon seems
> more aligned with the Traverses than Scarsdale Vibe.
>
> In solidarity,
> James
>
>
> Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
>
>
> On Wednesday, June 19, 2024, 20:10, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> I do not think the Traverse family are noble dynamiters....Pynchon refutes
> this with every death of them...
> On Wed, Jun 19, 2024 at 8:07 PM J K Van Nort via Pynchon-l <
> pynchon-l at waste.org> wrote:
>
> There are two ways to look at anarchy, as has been pointed out by several
> posts. The bomb-throwing, black clad anarchist of the Porky Pig cartoon
> being a caricature of the anarchists that assassinated and bombed (or
> didn't, as the history of the Hay Market bombing reveals). This is the
> image of anarchy that the state and the corporate world wish to portray.
> Pynchon treats Web Traverse & family as noble dynamiters in AtD.
> The other side of anarchy follows more what David described: a
> non-violent, consensus-based, voluntary action/organization of
> independent participants that relies on democratic processes and mutual
> aid. W.A.S.T.E may be an example of the 2nd, but the Zone in GR also
> represents the non-violent attempt to set up an alternative society.
> The Occupy Wall Street encampment attempted to prefigure an alternative
> means of cooperation and community. It had failings, but it was smothered
> by the politicians before it could coalesce further.
> While the majority of characters in the book seem to fear anarchy, they
> represent the portion of the population cowed by the threat of violence
> from which the police “protect” us.
> In solidarity,
> James
>
> Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
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>
>
>
>
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