A ifllingvvay to approach the textualnworks of Jiuncs >X cbh is to exaniinc thenliL’ld of clisfoursc into wliich tJicy havent’iTu;r}»t’il, to look not at the novels axnnovels hilt as statements among thosenanil in relation to the dominant formulationsnexistent aeross the American eiilturalnhori/on. One of the greatest misnomersnin the past 20 years, one thai isnireatetl as if it is correct, on target, andnlelling, is coiinlvrailliirc as variouslynap])lied to those in opposition to whatnwas perceived as being the reigning,nhegemonic notions of social and personalndeportment and attitudes. One ofnthe ke>. dehning characteristics of thencounterculture of the iy6()s was notn1( )ng hair, beads, tattered bluejeans, drugnuse. loe of acid rock, or thoroughgoingnvulgarity, but its opposition to thenAmerican military efforts in N’ietnam.n(jroups don’t form around things likenhaii-st les, lor if the did, then the bandsnof women who congregate under biowdn-ersnever- Saturday morning in .salonsnacross the country would be the mostnpotent association imaginable. Rather,nlhe- coalesce—or coagulate—aroundnissues, and //;f* issue at that time was thenwar. One of the reasons wh there isnnothing nmnler about the group inntliiestion is that it was supported by tlienvery class that it appeared to oppose,nliusine.ssmen cranked out the chintzyncast peace-s-mbol medallions and resistance-listnT-shirts, the dav-glo postersnand the black lights, tlie records and thenincense: the coverage of protest activitiesnwasn’t limited to the undergroundnpress but was broadcast andnpeddled in the national media. To be anman in uniform was to be an odd mannout. whereas to be something thatnlooked like it was the result of a l()-earnsta’ on a desert island was to be okay.nThis is not to say that sericemen didn’tnget free drinks in bars during the periodnor that there wxs no support tor them onnpcrrsonal and |X)litical levels. It is to sav.nTerms of Discoursenhowever, that the operative terms thatnpermeated society in the 6()’s. andnwhich, to a degree, continue to do .sontiKlay, are those which make the putativencounterculture the group in pow er.nothenvise known as ‘”the I-!slablishment.”nIliis becomes more clear through annexample, that of a nuLssive tome writtennby the well-known (!onrad scholarnI’leilerick R. Knr. American J iclionsnI’/iO-l’m):. ConiJ/rcheiisiiv llixtoiynandCrili’calliralnalion; (Harper &nRow: New ^’ork). Karl is certainly notnsomeone who couki be confused witiinIx-ing a memlxT of the so-ciilktl counterculture;nthe attention spans of suchnl^eople aren’t long enough to imaginenthe scope of Kiirrsim))^’! (21 minutes isnabout the longest the can go: thenaerage playing time ol’one side of an l.l’nrec-ord anil the length ol’a ‘I’V sitcom ).nKarl, one supposes on the basis of the listnof his works, is more of a soliil burglierntiian an aging, bebopping bohemian.nC;hapter one nf American I’iclions.n”Themes and Cijunterthemcs,” opensnwith Norman .Vlailer’s ision of .Americanas excrement, which Mailer went on atnlength about in his 196″ antiwar novelnWin Arc Vic in Viclnam-‘ Karl lioesn’tnlind this image perverse. Instead, henstresses that it is paradigmatii’: “a prototypicalnpostwar liction.’ In effect, tonwrite an antiwar novel is to be typical, tondo anything el.se is to be aiinormal.nIn the section “N’ietnam as a .Metaphornfor l.ik’.” Karl writes about Tim O’bricn.nRobert Stone. .Michael llerr. anil PhilipnCaputo. He claims:nW’hal ilisiingiiislu’s ficlioii ahoiil llii-n’ietn:i[n War Ihim iliat :i1>(iul WorldnWar li is its ili.sanhoilied i|uni[lon ihal Indi­nnnvidual sacrifice is worth nothing, allnmake the men hang together in thenpreM-niness of Now. Whal remains isnese.ipenDuty, which military personnel since atnleast the time ol Sparta have recognizednas being panimouiit, has been perertetlnin such thinking .so as to be reilefined asn”saving one’s ass.” Where does JamesnWebb, a man who acknowledges thenoriginal meaning of the concept, lit in’:’ Innthe 595 Images of text in Anicricatinliclion he gets this much in S-point ty]ienin a footnote: ‘Of note as fiction arenJames X ebbs Iwids tif/’irc ( 1978) andnO’lirien’s earlier///Die in a (.