A vase is a jug with a pretty picture

[PETER A WATTS]

one more time i'm gonna engage in public flogging of decaying equine 
carcasses.
I find and interesting connection between the discussions of 
exclusionism, the emerging elite status of books as a commodity for 
consumption (i mean mostly elites (of whatever kind) consume the shit in 
books), and [here's the dead horse] Shakespeare, The Simpsons, and the 
film _Strange Days_ as attempts to bridge the gap.
Shakespeare, Pynchon, and the writers for the simpsons and todays best 
films are doing something wonderful. Pynchon takes haute theory on  the 
science or discipline of your choice and turns it into and emotionaly and 
spiritually meaningful story. Shakespeare and other traffikers in popular 
dramatic idioms couch incredibly subversive (revolutionary is probably 
more accurate) ideas and theoretical machinations in tropes and 
stereotypes so simple and deceptive that Joe Shmo will cheer and cry and 
get sexual satisfaction from learning about Economics, culture theory, or 
whatever. 
In order to evoke the identification that is so conducive to the appeal 
of Shakespear everywhere, you have to turn Lao-tzu, Jesus, and 
Bodhidharma into Beavis, Benny Profane, and Cain from Kung Fu.
so. . .
-uwattp00 at mcl.ucsb.edu
You should stop watching so much television. . .
either that or watch way more television.
	         -meme of the week
                 teachers and students, tell your friends




On Wed, 18 Oct 1995, Burgess, John wrote:

> Nice post...
> 
> Your statement about there having to have been those objecting to the 
> printing press is accurate.  But you could have taken it further... Plato 
> complains about books (handwritten, of course) because THEY would 
> diminish the role of memory....
> 
> People are always going to bitch about new things that mean they will 
> have to learn new or different ways of doing things.  Disseminating 
> information is just another one of those things.... as is, perhaps, 
> assimilating information.
> 
> One of the most enjoyable aspects of Pynchon's work (at least for me) is 
> the way he goes, balls-out, in ejecting information, daring the reader to 
> find error (and probably not giving a fig if one does).  He has consumate 
> grasp of his medium and is able to blend the techniques of other media 
> (film, music, cartoons, etc.) into a coherent whole, far greater than the 
> sum of its parts.  
> 
> In a manner, GR is like watching a week's worth of TV, following various 
> casts of various dramas, comedies, soaps and the evening news reports.  
> We come into the stories _in media res_, not entirely sure who the 
> characters are, just what the plot-line is in any given story or series.  
> Some we follow to some sort of conclusion, others we leave long before 
> the story is finished.
> 
> That Pynchon is able to do this, with wit, coherence, style and emotion 
> is, for me, what makes him such a compelling author.  To my taste, V. and 
> GR were sublime; CoL49 and VL were excellent, but in a style less 
> appealing.
> 
> BTW, having been raised to know that I was a member of the elect (even if 
> it were only the elect of trash collectors), I've never had moral qualms 
> about the existence of elites and the preterite.  How society treats the 
> various groups, though, is another matter....
> 
>