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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>"Perhaps history this century [...]
is rippled with gathers in its fabric such that if we are situated [...] at the
bottom of a fold, it's impossible to determine warp, woof or pattern anywhere
else. By virtue, however, of existing in one gather it is assumed there are
others, compartmented off into sinuous cycles each of which come to assume
greater importance than the weave itself and destroy any continuity. [...]
Perhaps if we lived on a crest, things would be different. We could at least
see." (<i><span style='font-style:italic'>V.</span></i>, pp.155-156)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>I remember when I first read it –
blew me away.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Guy<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>
owner-pynchon-l@waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l@waste.org] <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>On Behalf Of </span></b>Mark Kohut<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> 10 September 2007 23:13<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> Dave Monroe<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Cc:</span></b> pynchon -l<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> Re: A reality stranger
than fiction</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>TRP has something---in V.? GR?---about the "folds" of history
very like, no?<br>
<br>
<b><i><span style='font-weight:bold;font-style:italic'>Dave Monroe
<against.the.dave@gmail.com></span></i></b> wrote: <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>A reality stranger than fiction<br>
Angela Bennie<br>
September 7, 2007<br>
<br>
WILLIAM GIBSON HAS a nodal theory of history. It is a little like the<br>
astronomers' string theory but with knots in it.<br>
<br>
There are certain points in history, Gibson says, where the world<br>
switches course, "where all the balls in the game move and settle in<br>
new positions". These nodal points are rare, he says, and quite random<br>
and they might not even be recognisable as significant when they<br>
occur.<br>
<br>
Their causes and effects can even seem quite mysterious afterwards.<br>
But whatever the circumstances of the event, the only thing that is<br>
really clear to him is that, having reached the node, or the blip in<br>
the historical course of human affairs, the world is set on an<br>
irreversibly different course.<br>
<br>
September 11, 2001, he says, was one of those events. "In some ways<br>
September 11 was the true beginning of the 21st century," Gibson says.<br>
He's speaking from <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Chicago</st1:City></st1:place>
late in the afternoon, one of his pit stops<br>
in a gruelling tour across the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">United
States</st1:country-region></st1:place> to promote his new book,<br>
Spook Country.<br>
<br>
"And at this point it is still perhaps only our narrative. But the way<br>
we have responded to it is changing things for other people in the<br>
world, too. So it is now becoming part of their narratives and their<br>
narratives will have different versions of the cause and its effects<br>
of the event.<br>
<br>
"So it is like this seismic shock, one whose waves are still moving up<br>
the time line. At its epicentre is 9/11."<br>
<br>
What he doesn't say is that this seismic shock changed the course of<br>
his writing, too....<br>
<br>
http://www.smh.com.au/news/books/a-reality-stranger-than-fiction/2007/09/06/1188783376158.html<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Tonight's top picks. What will you watch tonight? <a
href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/tv/mail/tagline/tonightspicks/evt=48220/*http:/tv.yahoo.com/%20%0d%0a">Preview
the hottest shows</a> on Yahoo! TV. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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