CoL49 Group Reading

[J K Van Nort]

I still want to discuss some of the issues like how Wendell’s auto lot job was his “Korea”, that if he had gone to WWII or Korea and returned with PTSD over fighting the enemy, he might not be so traumatized. This analogy of Oedipa’s implies that the horrors of war have shorter-term effects than the trauma created by being/contributing to the capitalist system. Overtly strained analogy that places capitalism’s crimes and destruction above theat which war causes. Capitalism does produce and thrive on war and conflict. This comparison coming from a Republican housewife feels more like a rich man telling a beggar to get a job. It sounds like “just get over it already, Mucho”. The Korean War would be fifteen years in the past, and Vietnam would be just starting to escalate as Johnson takes over from Kennedy. So Oedipa and Mucho would be part of the silent generation, born during the depression and before the war, much like most of the British invasion, the rockabillies, and the silent Americans who elected Nixon and cried when Goldwater was clobbered. TPR would also fit into this category/generation, too young for Korea, too old to be drafted into Vietnam. They knew the men and women who served in those wars of the past,, honored them as heroes, yet their escape of a war-time draft left many of them able to simply say, “well If I had been called up, I would have gone!” without having to actually make that choice or have it thrust upon them. Generation X had a similar situation since the draft ended before they came of age, and an all-volunteer army allowed them to make similar statements around the Afgan and Iraq Wars, while cheerleading a war they would never have to fight.
In solidarity,
James

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