North & Co.

[Jules Siegel]

At 03:11 PM 05/2/97 -0400, John Byrd <john.byrd at mindspring.com> wrote:

>Actually, Ollie and the boys (White House et. al) were working off the IBM
>PROFS system. This is a mainframe system where backup tapes are generally
>made every 24 hours or some such interval and archived essentially forever.
>Ollie had deleted his e-mail from his directory on the mainframe disk, but
>it was the archive tapes that the Congressional investigators went after.

Fascinating. Glad to be corrected. I thought I remembered seeing portable
computers too and I believe there was some comment in the PC press at the
time that led me to believe what I described in my message.

>As to having the first book ever to be based on Internet e-mail, usenet or
>otherwise, I think you come behind a long line of predecessors, Jules.
>Howard Rheingold comes immediately to mind, but there have been many, many
>others that I've seen in bookstores but which I've never had the
>inclination to buy or remember. I even started one myself in 1994, but
>never finished or (thankfully) published it. 

Thanks for yet another name.

Look, this is what email discussion lists are really all about and the
stupid name-calling is just totally unnecessary and uncivilized. I indulge
in it occasionally myself but only after some irrationally hostile person
gets too far out of line.

The most important factor in achieving knowledge is the willingness to take
risks and  accept correction. I think that's why Andrew Dinn is so insistent
on not restricting the debate, even if it leads to absurd excesses. I was
looking through the Archive and came across the date-rape debate. Diana got
pretty far-out in her metaphors, but she did make some very useful points in
helping me understand the other side of the equation.

The area in which people should and I think must excercise restraint is not
the name calling (which I just consider infantile) but in the expression of
irrational and unprovoked hostility. Nothing that anyone says on a list like
this can possibly be the real reason for the truly volcanic anger that I see
expressed here repeatedly about absolutely trivial issues.

Here's a reality: Pynchon-L is no longer a private playground. Never mind
Lineland -- how about 200,000 books and a six-figure promotion budget and a
squad of press agents, one of whom actually sends a message to the list?
When Holt talks about "Internet Marketing" they don't mean concealing the
existence of Pynchon-L, do they? You don't hear them telling Dale and me to
lay off. Every plug we produce is also a plug for Mason & Dixon. We are
doing their job online far better than they are doing it themselves, but
that doesn't mean they aren't doing it too.

Pynchon-l is under public scrutiny because Thomas Pynchon has a big book out
and you are just part of his publisher's marketing plan. Lineland is a silly
little sideshow. Do we have 200,000 books? A six-figure promotion budget?
Come on, guys. Here you are venting your hostility on a couple of pipsqueaks
while acting worshipful to the real corporate exploitation of your little
world. It's called identification with the aggressor.

The main point is that the spotlight is on pynchon-l and I think some people
are acting gooney because they know it. Maybe some lurker from Time, Inc. is
reading that idiotic forged bomb theat right now and thinking about how cute
it will be in some story they've been planning on email lists or the dark
side of the 'net or whatever.

Take the thought all the way and then don't blame me for provoking the scrutiny.
Don't blame Holt either. Just accept the fact that maybe it really is better
to be ladies and gentlemen than let a half dozen adolescents provide
excellent copy material for the real professionals out there with tabloid
mentalities and absolutely no scruples at all.

--
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