The Northern powers are more like administrators, who manipulate other people's history but produce none of their own. They are the stock-jobbers of history, lives are their units of exchange. Lives as they are lived, deaths as they are died, all that is made of flesh, blood, semen, bone, fire, pain, shit, madness, intoxication, visions, everything that has been passing down here forever, is real history.
The quote from Thomas Pynchon's "Against the Day" critiques the role of powerful nations in history, labeling them as administrators who reshape and control the narratives of others rather than creating their own. These nations, compared to stock-jobbers, commodify history, treating human lives merely as units of exchange while manipulating the significance of those lives in the grand narrative of history.
Pynchon emphasizes that true history is rooted in the authentic experiences of individuals—the struggles, joys, and sufferings that constitute life itself. He suggests that real history encompasses the tangible aspects of human existence, encompassing everything from physical sensations to profound emotions, highlighting that the richness of lived experience is what truly defines historical significance.
