meshugginah posts

[Jules Siegel]

At 12:31 PM 07/2/97 PST, <MASCARO at humnet.ucla.edu> wrote:
>Well, one of the things that makes ME just meshuga is when folks quote
conversations 
>between others w/out attributing the remarks clearly.  In this post, Matt W.
> cites an exchange between Jules and me w/ no attributions. 
> Eeps--gives me the fantods!  For the sake of clarity, I've indicated
> the sources of the remarks.  It's not hard  to insert attributions, gang.
>
>john m

>Final word from Matt:
>>
>>I doublechecked with native speakers and one language teacher.  It
>>is not an ignorant error, although it is commonly "corrected".

How about attributing these "experts"?

I don't know who told him this stuff but I think he didn't explain the
context properly or you got the answer wrong. You might say meshugineh kopf
(crazy head) but only a goy would ever say this makes me meshugineh...and
only out of ignorance.

I think that original quotation reveals Pynchon's ignorance of spoken
Yiddish and his reliance on library research rather than real-life
experience. I could point out many similar discrepancies in Vineland and
Gravity's Rainbow. His worlds are invented worlds. They have their own
internal logic and integrity but they don't show a lot of fact-for-fact
congruence with the real worlds that people seem to want to see reflected in
them.

This isn't a problem for most readers, but if you actually lived in Northern
California and the dope-dealing scene, as both Anita and I did, then you
find Vineland very difficult to take. The language is invented. No one
talked that way. If you don't know how they did talk, this is no big deal.
If you do, it's quite annoying and ultimately makes it impossible to enjoy
the book.



--Jules Siegel Apdo 1764 Cancun QR 77501
http://www.yucatanweb.com/siegel/jsiegel.htm