“In Pynchon’s telling, the strongest, most persistent force in this country is the ruling class’s effort to gain more wealth and power. The masses are led to believe that “compliance is the price of liberty,” as a federal agent in Shadow Ticket puts it, and they are threatened with violence if they don’t cooperate. But it’s not just that people are cowed into submission. Fearing disorder and rejecting freedom’s responsibilities, especially our obligations to one another, we willingly cede liberty in exchange for simplicity and a false sense of safety. Fascist tendencies have always been lodged deep in the American grain.”
Andrew Katzenstein, from his review of Thomas Pynchon's new novel Shadow Ticket, in the New York Review of Books, October 23 issue.
