Plist ethos reply

[MASCARO at humnet.ucla.edu]

Good bunch of thoughts on this  topic, meaning, I guess,  I didn't 
get as insulted as I thought I would for sharing my sissified
 thoughts.  Nods to davemarc for pointing out the dangers of
 inflating the list's importance (but then, weren't you, davemarc,
 one of those folks who was so nice and helpful to Bone? Apologies if not)
  I don't think the list is much of a world force, don't think
 we're *responsible* for the crumbling of TP's wall.  But I think the ethos of 
the list is a legitimate object of study.  For example, I think the way many folks 
mock most attempts at sincerity is pretty interesting.

It's certainly not about *hero-worship,* which IMO, is just a silly little
 schoolyard putdown meant to stifle thoughtful discussion of the 
consequences of our attitudes and actions

It's not even about looking or not looking at a given picture.   I'd look at
it if it was in front of me.  I even went to jester's web site, very tastefully done,
 but for some reason I couldn't get the photo to show up, which I took as a sign :-)
I'll see it someday, but I ain't worryin' much about it.

Sure, we're all hypocrite lecteurs in some way or other, all complicit in
 this spilled and broken world (still and always my favorite Pynchon image).
  But cynicism is an asshole's game anyway you cut it.  Something has to matter,
for the kids if nothing else?  If you don't believe this, can you call yourself a Pynchon 
reader? (And please, it's not ME deciding this question, it's YOU.)

I think, really, it was the notion of the terrified child that prompted
 my sissy posting.  I'm a father too, and I despise people who
frighten or exploit children (like most of our mainstream media do every day?).
This boy's gonna have a hard enough time of it as he grows just realizing
 who his father is.  A-and maybe there is a threat to the kid from that
 Brock Vond, always lurking and long-memoryed  . . . .

Pynchon seems to want his child to have as normal a life as possible, given
 the circumstances.  Can it be done? At my son's school,  I see up close every day the 
children of some pretty *famous* people.  Most of them don't seem too
 well adjusted, though of course they're all fabulously rich.  They're driven
 to school in enormous SUV's by nannies (or, occasionally, the famous
 parent, showing what a regular type dad/mom they really are) and
 often picked up by nannies accompanied by *friends* who are really
 security guys (kidnapping is a real, if not constant, threat).  It all 
seems so unnatural.  Pynchon seems to want to avoid this kind 
of grotesque *childhood* for his son, but, as someone earlier
 pointed out, it's probably no *coincidence* that
 these rifts in his barrier *coincide* w/ his son's need for socialization.

Not sure where this all leads, just ruminating, like a dehorned cow
 contemplating that juicy bolus in my cud . . . .

john m