Pynchon News?

[Arie Altena]

On Thu, 15 Feb 1996, Andrew Dinn wrote:

> 
> But I quite like the subscriber system provided by list servers. It
> means people have to work that much harder to join in so they have to
> want to talk about Pynchon. Also it avoids most of the cross-posting
> hell that New groups (particularly alt groups) get subjected to. Also,
> you get pretty well every note - no gaps because a server down the
> line doesn't talk to you for a week and meantime expires all the
> pynchon stuff. Contrariwise, you feel more inclined to hold on to list
> server notes because you know once you delete them you may not be able
> to retrieve them whereas News notes might still be hanging around
> unexpired on the server. Most important of all, anybody with email
> can subscribe to a list server. Not everyone has News access,
> particularly to alt groups.
> 
I completely agree with this. I might not contribute very often, but I 
read the Pynchon-mail daily & with pleasure. The nice "balance" between 
lighter fun stuff concerning Pynchon and the academic discussion of his 
work would, I'm afraid, not be present in a news group. But the question 
is, would having a alt.books.Pynchon group harm the discussion in this 
list? Could'nt one have a list and a newsgroup? Would subscribers 
quit the list and not contribute her anymore? I have no idea. Anyway I would 
never want to miss this list.

Arie Altena
ariealt at xs4all.nl
review editor Mediamatic