Personal Paranoia

[Paul Mackin]

Agree (think I am agreeing) with Henry and Craig that there is a link
between paranoia and intelligence, or if not with intelligence (who knows
what THAT is) with attractive personality. There is nothing so dismaying
as to run up against the complete absence of this commodity in some
person we need to spend significant time with.  We want a certain
amount round about us to confirm our own and measure it against. 

If the above sounds flat and uninspired, the reason is IT'S NOT
PARANOID ENOUGH.

What I shoulda said was, they are trying to tell us we gotta
rid ourselves of all paranoia when if fact the opposite is true.
Need to cultivate if for all we're worth. Fight the seeming
randomness of this old universe.

					P.
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> From: Craig Clark <CLARK at SHEPFS2.UND.AC.ZA>
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Re: Personal Paranoia
> Date: Wednesday, January 29, 1997 10:06 AM
> 
> Henry M asks:
>  > Cute answer Craig; like it.  But I'm also serious. A-and I'm not 
>  > talking about "conspiracy theories" here, or concerns over the 
>  > invasion of one's privacy, or sensitivity to the not wholly voiced 
>  > thoughts of other individuals. Does the complexity paranoia require a 
>  > particular level of intelligence?  If so, I would expect P-readers to 
>  > have a greater incidence of paranoia than the general population, let 
>  > alone that P-readers, in particular GR-readers, are attracted to this 
>  > work that is so famous for it. Did anyone ever ask Chrissie or Jules 
>  > anything about it?
>  
>  > From personal adolescent experience, I can tell you that, while it is 
>  > no cakewalk, paranoia does provide a logical framework and a certain 
>  > pride.
> 
> I was diagnosed a little over ten years ago as suffering from acute 
> depression with paranoid tendencies, so I can also give a serious 
> answer to the question. Let me start by saying that I was principally 
> attracted to TRP by his use of the paranoia/anti-paranoia dichotomy 
> (and I think it's important to note that TRP uses both). Like Fausto 
> Maijstral, I have long been deeply concerned that there is more 
> coincidence to the world than I can admit to and stay (completely) 
> sane. I'll whisk in my rather bizarre religious tendencies here 
> (aluded to elsewhere on this list - go search the archives if you 
> don't recall them), and say that I am deeply interested (and have 
> been for years) in the idea that coincidences may be an attempt by 
> some higher order of things to manifest or communicate... Give an 
> impressionable 19-year old who thinks this way a copy of _The Crying 
> of Lot 49_ to read, and you'll have a lifelong Pynchon fan...
> 
> 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.
> 
> Which brings me to the current flamefest, my two South African cents 
> worth (1 US dollar =  4 SA Rand, last time I looked). Though I don't 
> agree with a lot of what he has said about other foax on this list, Steely
> is one damn fine committed journo, and stands on the side of the line 
> where I'd like to stand come the Big Showdown with the Brock Vonds of 
> this world. But then so does Diana York Blaine. And Henry M. And 
> David Casseres. And davemarc. And Murthy. And all the Chrises (hey, we've 
> got a second Craig these days too!). And maybe if you ask the questions I've 
> asked above, you may also want to ask yourself what we're doing making 
> enemies of our potential allies... 
> 
> 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"