Warwick Conference

[LARSSON at vax1.mankato.msus.edu]

David Hosford asked, 
"Might it be possible for those on the List fortunate
enough to attend the Warwick conference on Pynchon
on 18-19 November, to post a brief synopsis to the List
regarding interesting information, events, or sightings
garnered at the conference?  This could be the Morse code-
equivalent to a "conference call" from the Warwick counterforce."

I'm still coping with jet lag and Final Exam week here, but can give you
some quick first impressions.  I'm sure others will follow.  I may have
time for some more detail in a week or so.

1. The conference was *very* intensive, running from 10 a.m. to about 10 pm
on Saturday and 10 to 6 p.m. on Sunday (ironic for a writer indebted to Sloth,
no?).  

2. A very interesting mix of participants.  The majority were from the UK or
US but many came from all over.  My session included presenters from
Australia, South Korea, Greece and Morocco!

3. Predictably, the conference was fairly heavy on the theoretical side.

Besides Deleuze and Guattari, many references were made to Lacan and
especially to Frederic Jameson's notions of postmodernism and the "technological
sublime".

It's all still a bit of a blur to me.  I'm looking forward to publication
of the proceedings, so I can read the papers I missed and re-read the ones
I heard.

I'll be interested in other people's responses.

--Don Larsson, Mankato State U., MN