Meshugginah posts, and other things sundry

[Sojourner]

At 01:48 PM 7/7/97 -0500, Jules Siegel wrote:

<cut a bunch of stuff about Hitler and his art>

>
>Ultimately, I see Hitler as a satirist. The concentration camps were
>conceptual art at its most compelling. He held industrial society up to a
>mirror and reduced it to its most horrible essence.
>
>The first poison used to kill Jews was carbon monoxide in the form of
>automobile exhaust. Hitler's only lasting achievements were the Volkswagen
>and the Autobahn. (Well, I guess you have to count ballistic missiles and
>jet planes, too, even though they don't quite fit the metaphor.) Today, we
>are our own SS. We buy our own gas chambers and we gather in our own
>concentration camps, which we call cities, and, like the pathetic Jews who
>fashioned their own imitations of SS uniforms and then brutalized weaker
>inmates, we dress up in executive three-button suits and sneer at the
>homeless slobs drifting about the streets without taste and style,
>indistinguishable from garbage except by greater motility.


Folks lets have a vote.  Here's what I'm looking for when I get Pynchon-l
email.  Just vote aye or nay if you agree with me.

1) Actual discussion of works of TRP, including but not limited to quotes,
passages, characters, references etc.

2) Following the above with actual linear threads, which while soon become
very off-topic of TRP, can be traced back to a #1.


If you vote aye, this means you are AGAINST sweeping generalizations about
periods of time, peoples, cultures etc.  Arguments and flames are not the
problem, its the degradation of threads into statements such as the above.

We are not gathered here (cybernetically) to expound our own writings, or
to use this as a forum for essay writing.  We're here to have discussions
and analysis, at which the center is clearly TRP.  Of course, all things
can be related in some fashion to another, so yes of course nothing is
excluded.  It's not an objective filter I'm hoping to form, but rather a
consensus on what our attitude/frame of mind is going to be with these list.  

Or, as I say it in a more simplified manner: let's not get into
communication breakdown mode.  IOW, say something you can get your teeth
around, and then let the other guy (or woman) have their chew at it.  The
paragraph I quoted is amorphous beyond belief.

WARNING:  This is just my opinion.  I do not presume to speak for anyone,
known or unknown, dead or alive, or anyone bearing any characteristics or
similarities to any other person, unless specifically named or identified.  

SECOND WARNING:  If you feel the need to frame my responses into the facts
of my life, please e-mail me first and I will be glad to let you in on any
relevant bio information.  I AM NOT A LIBRARIAN!

REPEAT I AM NOT A LIBRARIAN OF ANY SORT, SHAPE OR MANNER.