Pynchon as historian? (was: meshugginah posts)

[Eric Alan Weinstein]

>Although Pynchon is usually believed to be sympathetic to drug use, I think
>he reveals his own tormented Puritanical conflicts in Gravity's Rainbow and
>in Vineland. 

     Tormented Conflicts---- isn't that part of what makes him interesting?
Jules, I really think you are seriously under-rating the quality of the work.
I don't doubt that the man, as citizen, when you knew him, may have been
less than god-like and lacking some fundamental qualities of enlightenment
and perhaps even personal dignity.

     But he did posses great insight in a least a few areas, tremendous learning
in a variety of disciplines, a unique sense of humour, and the ability to
start and, eventually, finish complex fictions. I'm not trying to convince 
you of my position---that Pynchon is one of the dozen great writers in any
language of the last 50 years--- just that he may be a tad more wonderful
than you are presently allowing for.

Eric

PS This is the first E-Mail I have written not by typing words into
my computer, but by speaking to it. It took me 3 weeks repeating
a hundred different words and variations per night to get the
programme to 95% accuracy. Interesting. 


Eric Alan Weinstein
E.A.Weinstein at qmw.ac.uk