On Not Getting "It"

[Charles_Sligh at BAYLOR.EDU]

Henry:  your points about the "age" issue seem valid and worthy of 
consideration--although I do not agree with them in regards to the list.  I have 
a son of my own, and don't think that I haven't considered that someday Isaac 
will approach me, "Dad, can I read Celine/Pynchon/Burroughs now?"  It's a 
struggle to know. . . .  

Feed him Kipling, Stevenson, Tolkien, Homer, Austen, Dickens, Schehrezade (Lang 
vs. Burton), Calvino first, most certainly.

My primary aim was to point out a radical-though-plausible theory about 
"andrew/carl."

Who's on first:  The point of my "Carl" joke/heads-up alert was that I found it 
amusing that recommendations came so quickly to circle the wagons around the 
list to keep out "The Threat."  Old Sudwest Afrika hands would call that a Kraal 
(against Carl!).  

This seemed a curious reaction for an 'open' list dedicated to discussing the 
most covalent and 'negatively-capable' of American authors and conducted in the 
most open forum to date, the internet.

Curious again because as the alarm was going out about "Andrew/Carl" and the 
furrowed-brows and head-nodding began about how "sensitive" the discussion is on 
this list, few stopped to ponder the _more interesting_ facets of 
"Andrew's/Carl's" post:  it _was_ a pretty darn precocious "can I play?" letter?  
Read it again.  Sounds like either a very bright kid-or-a Masterful Prank?  

Looks like the bait was taken in several ways.

Also, without denying Pynchon's wide-range of subject matter (sexual, narcotic, 
and all the rest), I have yet to understand what is so "sensitive" about the 
discussions on this list.  Nothing young "Andrew/Carl" god help the bright child 
that he is won't hear mum and dad tossing back and forth in the next room, I'd 
venture.

Remember the fantasy/sci-fi novels you may or may not have read when 11 years or 
younger--Silverburg, Lieber, and the rest have much to raise the 
bluestocking-alert at your local public library.  And back at Reicher Catholic 
High, at an 'innocent' fourteen, our 'Cultural Topics" class was reading 
_Jitterbug Perfume_, Apuleius's _Metamorphosis/Golden Ass_, _GR_ and _V._, 
Miller's _Tropics_, Burton's _Thousand Nights and A Night_, Durrell's 
_Quartet_--all treasured books that made me the reader I am now.

I did send the young seeker a private email giving him an idea that TRP's books 
might be the place to start before approaching the List.

Like Fakhereddine, my hope is that he will stay insatiably curious, read 
_whatever_ comes across his path, and "the rest will have to be part of his 
'growing ' experience."  



>On 15 Mar 97 at 15:36, Charles_Sligh at BAYLOR.EDU 
><Charles_Sligh at BAYLOR.EDU> wrote:

It is important to keep our eyes and ears open for the Golden Opportunities 
which present themselves to us-_and_-the masterful Pranks played upon 
us--Perhaps even by the Master Prankster himself?

In the end, there may be no difference between the two ways of tickling.


Maybe "Andrew" _is_ Carl.  And now he is back out in the cold.  For those who 
would segregate, turn to The Book:  

Maybe "The true sin is yours:  to interdict that union.  To draw that line.  To 
keep us worse than enemies, who are after all caught in the same fields of 
shit--to keep us strangers."

And the parents whisper behind their childrens' backs on the hallway phones and 
the email in their studies.



On Sat, 15 Mar 1997 17:08:18 -0500 gravity at nicom.com (Henry Musikar) wrote:

>You aren't perchance suggesting that there be no practical separation
>of children and adults. If you are, then how did you feel about
>Slothrop and Bianca before the recent (to me) revelatory analysis of
>Bianca's age? Children are not just people who have read less than
>adults. There are many things that I enjoy because as a (comparative)
>adult I have a temperament that has been tempered. Are you advocating
>exposing a child to intimate communications "on the hallway phones and
>the email in their studies?"
>
>Sure, there are kids that have been exposed to all manner of "adult" 
>experiences, misbehavior, and mindless pleasures. War and abuse, for 
>instance; movies with "graphic" violence and sex. Why the hurry 
>to bring them into the priveledged club of adulthood?
>