Duplicate Postings and other arcana

[Greg Montalbano]

On Thu, 25 Apr 1996 12:31:23 PST you said:
>Greg M. inquires:
>
>>Has anybody else been getting two of every message on the pynchon list?
>>I'm starting to feel like that character in Catch22 ... "I see everything
>>twice!"
>
>I don't get every message twice, but I get about about half of them twice (or
>is
>that
>all of them?).  I also frequently get messages returned as undeliverable from
>someone named BLADE who, as I  understand, doesn't exist (which might
>account).  Maybe now that the list has moved, that won't happen anymore.
>
>What other gremlins lurk in the interstices of this strange space we inhabit?
>
>Is that Injun Joe who sees everything twice?
>
>john m
>
>
According to John Krafft, the duplicates result from people using the old
address.

The character who saw everything twice was one of Yossarian's hospital
roomates;  Y perceived him to be a master at feigning insanity, & set
out to copy his every move.  When he cried out "I see everything twice!",
Y would do the same.  When he cried out "The walls, the walls, push back
the walls!", Y would follow suit.  Then one day the patient died, & Y
decided to stop following his lead.  "I see everything once!" he cried.
The doctors came running up from all directions;  one held a finger up
in front of his face: "How many fingers do you see?" "One."  He held up
two; "How many now?"  "One".  "My god, we've cured him!"
  ---- more or less from memory

(I THINK his name was A. Fortiori)