Louisville Lollapalooza '96

[Diana York Blaine]

DAMN that was fun boys!  Let's say we reconvene this session in the
hotel bar in Antwerp the first night of the international conference next
year. Speaking of bars, upon check-out today I was surprised to find that
my entire bill for the hours-long drunken debauch of the Whole Sick Crew
in the Seelbach Bar was $5.90.  Um, either Maker's Mark Manhattans are .90
each in KY (in which case I plan to relocate immediately), or one of you
gallants paid for mine (I didn't have sex with you in return did I?), or
there really is a God, in which case I am sorry I made fun of
Christianity. In fact I was not clear about my position in that post.
I apologize. I wasn't attacking Things Done in the Name of Religion as
much as the sad fact that as mythologies go, we inherited a putrid
and hateful one which I wish would be replaced by a better one. OK?  Do
all the Christians who e-mailed me forgive me now that I have clarified
that?  I  am a "Christian" myself I suppose but I am really wondering what
good it  does any of us at this point all things considered (including the
bloody history.)  Couldn't we have a version where the father doesn't kill
the son for some supposed crimes committed by others?  And can't we have
one that recognizes other religions as valid too? ( That refusal always 
gave me the creeps, even as a kid.) It's also fantastically patriarchal
and misogynist and I guess I am just a little tired of saying "but Jesus
was a good man..."  Sadly that seems irrelevant to the rest of it and I
cannot really separate it out as I've been pretending to. (P.S. I am also
a "debt" not a "trespass" person and about die when people say it
"wrong.")

I appreciate the many useful comments and stimulating conversations that I
had with y'all during the conference (especially with that handsome
lurker!) and will be happy to get the special Warwick conference edition
of Pynchon Notes reviewed in an upcoming Studies in the Novel.  I am
thinking of asking Katherine Hayles to write the review (hope she doesn't
notice there are no essays by women in it! oops!).  A-and don't miss the 
great Dead Body of A Woman (Duchamp's Etant Donnes) in Rosenberg's article
(p. 151). Those of you who heard my V. paper should have no trouble
theorizing about her absent presence!  Oh yeah, and thanks for the Dracula
suggestion, John.  I attended a paper on that text the next day because of
your comments and the woman recommended another apt Stoker story,
Dracula's Guest, in which the dead woman refuses to stay dead and crashes
out from her crypt. BTW I am also compiling aesthetic images of "dumped"
dead women, a la the Duchamp, and am wondering if anyone remembers the
Twin Peaks series.  Wasn't the "logo" her dead body?  Would there be
extant ads or posters showing this?  How do I get one?

Anyway, see you all soon again I hope!

Diana (another woman who also refuses to stay dead in spite of paternal
edict...)