Flatness

[Tim Ware]

If you cannot "understand" the posts of MGK, you are half way there.   
His post dated Fri, 24 Feb 95 17:55:58 -0500  indicates that there is great 
pleasure (rather than information) to be had by reading his musings.  It 
provides both a wonderful counterpoint to the occasional blatherings of 
budding young lit-critters, as well as  an absurdist approach to 
discussions about TP which is VERY crucial to  pynchon-l.  You can't have 
your Andrew Dinns without your Michael G. Koopmans, eh?

MGK's merciless lampooning of lit-krit-speak is hilarious.  And his 
ingenious use of entropy within the confines of his posts is wonderfully 
apropro, as they follow the same trajectory of dissipation as Lt. 
Slothrop did in GR.  The immaculately-conceived-yet-ever-so-delicate 
missives are launched with such ersatz confidence (and specious 
relevance), only to  (quickly) reach their own Brennschluss, unravel and 
crash to the ground.  This is Entropy in Action, folks!   Closed systems, 
his posts discourage any attempt at (or desire for) discussion and quickly 
evaporate in a rainbow mist of randomness.

It's important to a group like this that we contain (indeed, ENCOURAGE
AND NOURISH!!!) the likes of "Michael G. Koopman".   Word salad can 
provide the roughage needed to clear out those clogged bowels of 
thought.   What would any of TP's novels be without that strong whiff of 
absurdity?  One shudders to ponder.   

In pynchon-l we've all seen our fair share of emboldened neo-litkritters 
attempting what could be cynically thought of as journeys up (down?) their 
own assholes (though I don't mean to demean the importance/relevance of such 
peregrinations).  Perhaps (and I intend no disrespect to MGK ((quite the
opposite!))) "Michael G. Koopman" can, on some level, provide another 
asshole up which we all may crawl.  Perhaps I digress.

"Michael G. Koopman" is the "anti-Dinn".  It could be no other way.

Tim

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ timware at crl.com
If you are dealt a lemon ... play lemonade - CD-ROM DOS


On Fri, 24 Feb 1995, Timothy C. May wrote:

> Michael G. Koopman wrote:
> 
> > Eigenfunctions have something to do with harmonic analysis and
> > ordinary and non-ordinary differential equations.  What, per se, is a
> > non-differential equation?  There are a host of things considered as
> > non-differentiable, and in your cloaca systems chaosm a sharp hook
> > might dig in hearing such named non-Hausdorf monsterances, or some
> > other popular non-term for such speckled eggs as usually heeled.  Such
> > cups runneth over and stain our covers to embed in hatches converted
> > to tables, in further scrambling your beatnik props.
> 
> (Several more paragraphs of gobbledegook elided.)
> 
> Huh? You've apparently strung together some buzzwords and then run
> your text through a Lex-based "rant generator." (If "Koopman" is
> actually an AI experiment, I'm impressed.)
> 
> In fact, while I dislike criticizing the writings of others here on
> our Pynchon list, I am finding Koopman's postings to be nonsensical,
> and devoid of any understandable content. I haven't seen him write a
> single, straightforward line.
> 
> Your mileage my vary, but he's a hundred light-years beyond Pynchon's
> most difficult passages. With Pynchon, close rereading is often
> rewarding, but I'm convinced it's pointless in Koopman's case.
> 
> Sorry to get personal, but the rants are just plain unintelligible. 
> 
> --Tim May
> 
> 
> -- 
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