TP TV

[Mr Craig Clark]

"Briggs, Michael" <MBriggs at interaction.org>
wrote, in response to Andrew Dinn: 
>         I've been feeling kind of uneasy over the fact that TV does seem to 
>         be the common ground for a great many folks on this list -- even,   
>         dare I say it, more so than the works of TRP!  (it always seems to  
>         spark the longest, most heated debates).  Or am I just being        
>         paranoid?
>      
>      Thank God someone said it first! No, Greg, you're not being paranoid 
>      about all the TV talk -- a novice Pynchonhead, I just joined this list 
>      last week, all eager to talk about GR and other books I'm becoming 
>      unhealithly obsessed with. Instead, I find myself entangled in this 
>      miles-long thread about "uncomfortable" and "subversive" TV. The 
>      Simpsons, for chrissake.
>      
>      I didn't want to sound like a jerk, but -- Andrew Dinn's Disgusted 
>      English Dandy Drill notwithstanding -- it's driving me crazy. Can
>      we talk about something else, please? 
>      
>      I'll even go first (and forgive me if this is a stupid novice 
>      question): Any thoughts about why the songs in GR have-such twisted 
>      meters and-hyphen-a-tion? Is it just a somewhat-annoying attempt to 
>      mimic sung phrases, or an attempt to satirize this technique?  
>      
>      That being said, howdy foax! Name's Michael. I live in DC.

Welcome Michael! However, let's not lose perspective here. TRP is a 
writer deeply embedded in contemporary popular culture, and 
discussions of the socio-political economy of television seems to me 
a most appropriate response to his work. I ageree if we get to 
trading anecdotes about "what was your favourite episode of season 3 
of STAR TREK" that we've strayed off-topic, but I think this 
discussion is a long way from that stage.

Craig Clark

"Living inside the system is like driving across
the countryside in a bus driven by a maniac bent
on suicide."
   - Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"