In late June, just about when Michelson and Morley were making their final observations, Blinky Morgan was apprehended in Alpena, Michigan, a resort town built on the site of an Indian graveyard.
* * * * * * * * * *
Even while Pynchon is finishing up the conclusion of Merle's theory with the knowledge that as the experiment was concluding and Æther was taking the first wound that would prove fatal, Blinky was captured (possibly proving that theory correct), he takes the time to remind everybody that one of the main themes of this novel is the rampant imperialism of white Europeans (and by obvious extension, being that they're a subclass of "white European, Americans). What better way to point out how shitty the Americans treated the indigenous population than by focusing on this one single aspect of the "resort town": it was previously an Indian graveyard.
I think this is where my college professors would write a little note on my paper saying "EXPAND" but how much more can I say? Do I have to point out how a town based on vacation and luxury and relaxation is nearly the exact spiritual opposite of sacred burial grounds? That Pynchon has evoked an image of tourists walking around carefree without an important thought in their heads atop the corpses of the native Americans? Am I to assume that people reading whatever I write are dunderhead nincompoops?! Hmm, I do that every day when I'm out and about in society, why shouldn't I do it while I'm writing?! Maybe my teachers had a point!
No comments:
Post a Comment