ampersands

[Scott Eric Kaufman]

On Wed, 4 Jun 1997, William Daniel Walsh wrote:

> Yeah, for what it's worth, so am I;  the coincidences are hard to ignore.
> However, I am not sure that I'd want to make too big of a deal about it
> all.  Assuming TRP is Wanda Tinasky (or, at the very least, that TRP is
> responsible for penning some of the letters signed by Wanda T.), what
> then?  He almost certainly wrote these letters as a goof, all
> along thinking that his real identity would be secure.  I feel a bit
> ashamed of myself for caring one way or another.

I think what makes them interesting is that we can read something he
didn't intend the public to read.  Sure, I have the same torn feelings
reading it as I do listening to a really great bootleg, but . . . I
suppose the same rational I use for the 'legs works for the Letters.  The
fact that what we're listening to (or in this case reading) is raw, but
still brilliant, proves the artistry of the individual.  It's not that I
have more respect for Pynchon because he can produce on the fly what, for
example, someone like Flaubert struggled with for years, because writers
work differently. 

Truth be told, I don't know where I'm going with this, which I suppose
proves your point . . .

Scott Kaufman
skaufm1 at tiger.lsu.edu