CoL49 - anarchy

Joseph Tracy brook7 at sover.net
Fri Jun 21 03:55:34 UTC 2024



> On Jun 19, 2024, at 8:10 PM, 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...

 Pynchon doesn’t do a lot of refuting. So that would be you, not Pynchon. They do lean anarchist in pursuit of freedom and opposition to murderous big shots. "To live outside the law you must be honest" , at least with yourself.  
> 
> 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
>> --
>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>> 
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l





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