Boring holes

[Scott Weintraub]

On Sun, 10 Sep 1995, Susan Danewitz wrote:

> Secondly, another tie to Pynchon:  I felt almost the exact same
> repulsion/tension, reading about the bone-heads, as I did reading
> Esther's nose job.  I had to close read that passage, and it was
> late at night, and even though I had read it plenty of times before,
> by the end I was nearly foetal.  It was a vile, painful process
> to have to read through--and I'd love it if someone would give me
> a name for the literary technique.  That of hitting the "squeam" 
> button, I mean.  Pynchon loves this technique.  I'm also thinking 
> of a journey down a toilet in GR...
> 

I just read that passage for the first time a few days ago.  It was also 
late at night.  My heart was beating furiously and my stomach was mildly 
disturbed.  For some reason, the notion of typing those pages in and 
e-mailing it to some friends crossed my mind.

But anyway:  The intent of this message is really to introduce myself.  
I'm a newcomer to the list.  Last week, a new semester began here at the 
University of Maryland in College Park and I am taking an undergraduate 
course on Pynchon and DeLillo.  At this point I am about halfway through 
"V" and am thuroughly enjoying every word.  My only other contact with 
Pynchon has been through "The Crying of Lot 49" which engaged me to the 
point of hysteria this past summer.

Now that I've said, "Hi," I'll probably be doing a lot more listening than 
speaking.

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*     Scott Weintraub  -  scottw at wam.umd.edu  -  College Park, Maryland     *
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*    "The bounties of space, of infinite outwardness, were three:  empty    *
*         heroics, low comedy, and pointless death."  -Kurt Vonnegut        *
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