Personal Paranoia

[Andrew Dinn]

Craig Clark writes:

> But there's another level which Henry's maybe trying to exclude
> here, and which I think is a valid point for discussion. No, Henry,
> I don't for a moment think you're a jackbooted stormtrooper trying
> to stomp on freedom of expression.... ;-) This is what I think of as
> a political paranoia. The kind that worries about the fact that the
> Starbucks/Blockbuster Video/Debonair Pizza/ Steers Burger
> conglomerate is making its insidous way here into this corner of the
> third world, whereas development aid isn't. The kind that is
> beginning to suspect that the "dumbing down" phenomenon may have to
> do with some foax sitting around a baize-covered table and saying
> "Look, if too many people start thinking too much they'll wonder why
> we have all the power and money and they have none." The kind that
> makes me wonder whether someone representing Big Business didn't
> lean on the Pulitzer judges and say "We don't like that book because
> it's hostile to what we are doing", or that makes me ask just why
> no-one's ever nominated Noam Chomsky for public office. And I'm
> quite serious about this one, foax - I think if you don't ask these
> questions, if you don't get paranoid about them, then you're missing
> out on a lot of what's happening (my favourite definition of
> coincidence, from John Brunner's _Stand on Zanzibar_: "You weren't
> paying enough attention to the rest of what's really going on"). And
> you're missing out, IMHO, on a lot of what TRP is about.

But, don't be so paranoid as to think that these things happen by
deliberate and controlled planning and execution (actually planning is
a much overrated fringe activity, but that's another story, Lucy).
Pullitzer prize judges don't have to explicitly recognise that Pynchon
threatens their livelihoods. What sort of people do you expect would
end up on such a panel? And would not the sort of conditioning which
gets people into such a position also condition many of them into
discounting Pynchon's work?

It's not so simple because there is a lot of second-guessing and room
for manoeuvre to factor in but one of Pynchon's most important
messages is that people do not employ systems, rather systems, to a
surprisingly large extent, drive people (that's why thurrs all those
Nazis in the woodwork, why he takes such pains to display Blicero in
his context). And anyone (inside or outside of academe) who does not
see this general point and apply it to their particular circumstances
has one hell of a log-removal problem. Personally, I'm grateful to
whoever levers the log up high enough for me to catch a glimpse of it
A fortiori I consider it a public duty to flick at other people's
motes. I'll do my best to be civil about it but I'm damned (we all
are) if I will resist the urge.


Andrew Dinn
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And though Earthliness forget you,
To the stilled Earth say:  I flow.
To the rushing water speak:  I am.