Pynchonian Rorschach

[Jules Siegel]

At 02:24 PM 07/5/97 -0400, jp4321 at IDT.NET (jporter) wrote:

>Jules Seigel came of age a good ten years before the mid-sixties, by which
>time he was already middle-aged. I came of age in the sixties, which have
>come and gone, but I do not pretend to be a Gen-Xer, or a member of the
>Twenty-something crowd. I am content with my own generation. Jules, of the
>fifties, seems to constantly need to identify with and speak for my
>generation.

You've got this all wrong. The Sixties wasn't a generation it was a period
of time. I wasn't a member of some age group. I was an individual living in
and observing a very intense thaw in American society. This affected
millions of people of all ages. There was a discussion several months ago on
the copy editors list about what we mean by the Sixties and it was generally
agreed that it began in 1965 and ended in 1973.

By your definition none of the Chicago Seven, including Abbie Hoffman (born
in 1936) would be part of the Sixties.

My identification is not necessarily with some diffuse Sixties mentality but
with a very specific subculture that existed in Northern California and
elsewhere called communalism, in which I was very active. Pynchon
caricatures this subculture directly and indirectly in his works.

As I pointed out in an earlier message, I received a letter by mail from a
writer in Spain asking me to comment on his sources. He assumes, apparently,
that Pynchon is writing history disguised as fiction. According to your
position, I am not qualified to make observations on Pynchon's portrayals of
a subculture that I witnessed and was part of because I was ten years too
old when I had these experiences.

>I feel this urge to say: "It's okay, Jules. We can speak for ourselves, and
with a lot more authenticity than you can. Tell us about Elvis or Sputnik,
or something."

You are just making a fool of yourself here and being rather boorish.

> I.e., no right or wrong here, but Jules just keeps adding to that already
thick file labeled: "Jules Seigel."

How about right and wrong spelling, as in Siegel? We're not talking about
right or wrong but historical accuracy. We've now established that this
doesn't apply to the works of Thomas Pynchon. I think that's a good thing
and I'm glad that I provoked this consensus.


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