Lineland vs. %list folks words - a brief review

[jester]

This bickering is ridiculous.  If people want to know how much of their (or
their fellow Pynchon-lers') words are in Jules' book, they should get ahold
of it and count the bloody words.  Then they'll have a basis for argument.
I have the book but am not about to spend a week counting words, suffice to
say that in reading it, the majority of the book DOES appear to be indeed
Jules'. _Lineland_ includes the text of his _Playboy_ article, a warm
introduction/autobiographical section, lengthy ruminations by Jules on a
variety of subjects, brief commentary on his and others' posts, a short
speculative essay on the future of the book, and finally, Jules' FAQ.  Also
included are two wonderfully revealing photographs of Chrissie and the two
photos of Anita (Jules's current wife).  [now that I think of it, the FAQ,
the Playboy essay and Anita's photos are all available on his websight]
Other graphics include an ink sketch by R. Crumb and a (pencil?) sketch by
Chrissie of Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. "As He Might Appear in 1997" (worth
the price of the book, imho).

Although the posts of Pynchon-lers does make up the heart of the book, the
entire work does navigate around the online mailing list experience, and
Jules' experience as he moved from near-recluse to Internet flame-warrior.

I have to admit, in all fairness, that I'm not sure that the 85% Jules vs.
15% Pynchon-lers is accurate, but the majority of the text is indeed Jules'
own.  Also, in all fairness I'd have to say that some of the posts he uses
may be a bit more than fair-use allows, but I'm no judge or copyright
expert, suffice to say that if one of my students handed in a paper like
this they would get either a "rewrite" or an "F" depending upon their level
and my mood.  It's certainly not downright plagiarism, and Jules does cite
each author -- but the permission thing still gets in the way... especially
since, in my opinion, some of the posts and subject matter included might be
fuel for someone's article or essay -- which in the end COULD have
commercial value.  But that's only because the level of many of the posts
are of such high calibur and are so well thought ouot as to reveal original
thought and scholarly aptitude.  Outside of that, the book is good material
and worth a read.  It also takes much of the Pynchon-l experience and many
"newly" revealed Pynchon "facts" and makes them tangibly available to
scholars -- who no doubt will deluge modern american fiction journals with
articles about Pynchon's writing based on his supposed pedophiliac urgings,
anti-Semetic ideals, poor self-image and bad teeth.  Is this a bad thing?
Well... you decide.  

I respect TP's desire for privacy, but I also think that much of the
enigmatic mythos he has created or allowed to be created around him is also
his challenge to us to discover who he is -- some people prefer to do that
only through reading his fiction... others welcome "other" sources, like
Jules.  Sometimes I think we, including myself, take this all too
seriously... and I honestly believe that TP himself just might be on this
list lurking and laughing... or maybe he's actively involved... that's the
beauty of the Internet, it's so bloody simple to be anonymous -- and
creative of one's self...

I'll end this post with a quote from Jules' book that sums up the entire
online experience -- Pynchon-l, email, and all that jazz... "just because
you're online doesn't mean that you have the unrestricted right to kick
others around with unsupported attacks..." in the end, the online world is
becoming more accountable, less anonymous, less private.  People are
beginning to take responsibility for what they post and where they post it,
and people (like many of us here on Pynchon-l) are learning that what we
post is still out there, somewhere, waiting in cyberspace, in some
mysterious archive, for someone to jack in and access our words... more than
ever, I love Henry Musikar's sig, "Keep cool, but care -- TRP"

CYA,
JJ "Jester"