Lineland as Pynchon Authority (redux)

[Gary L. Thompson]

I have to admit to a subtle process here. I've gone from really resenting 
the frequency and tone of Jules Siegel's posts, to finding an occasional 
astute observation smuggled in, to feeling a strange gratitude. He's a 
gadfly, and any organization (even a disorganization like the P-list) 
needs someone to stir it up occasionally. I look forward to reading 
"Family Secrets"--and to Peter Giordano's research results, and to the 
rest of the exchanges. 

On Tue, 13 May 1997, Jules Siegel wrote:

> I was going to hold off sending the following, but I think that what I have
> to say here needs to be said.
> 
> This is what I found:  Well crafted but very grim, dark Heavy Metal
> landscape filled with mostly defiantly disgusting characters portaryed in
> gross situations. Lots of fecal imagery, like an unwashed stained glass
> dingleberry.

[etc.]

One of the great things about consumer choice is that you don't have to 
keep reading. Really. Close the book. No one has to read Pynchon; he's 
not for everyone. Hit the delete key and move on.


> Is this the Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr., fan club?

[cut]

> I feel as if I'm forbidden to say anything from the heart about Thomas
> Pynchon's work because I'm not ready to nominate him for the Nobel Prize and
> have some frankly negative observations about his material and techniques.

[etc.]

Last time I checked, the only forbidding going on here was from people 
who have filtered out others' posts. As for the rest of us, we read (or 
not) what comes along the pike. And all of us get criticized in our turn. 

> I thought the criticisms of the less than enthusiastic reviews of Mason &
> Dixon was worthy of the Mickey Mouse Club.

This is a cheap shot. The _Slate_ reviewer committed a gross violation of 
reviewers' ethics by not finishing the book he was reviewing. To point 
this out is not Mickey Mouse.

> Anyone who really knows some of the sources of Pynchon's work is
> automatically disqualified from speaking his or her true thoughts. 

It's a little hard to complain that others don't respect your authority 
if you have undermined that yourself (here I mean the early posts I saw 
about how e-mail is public and anyone can publish whatever is desired 
from it, without authors' permission--and about how your book is an 
absolutely new thing in the history of the world [it can be valuable and 
a good read without exaggerated claims]).

> What is really going on here?

I think we're all trying to figure that out. Please continue!

This environment isn't a democracy--it's an anarchy, at least so long as 
the owner of the list permits it to be. Hierarchies and structures 
emerge, but they are based on rhetoric. If you use rhetoric, it's a 
little hard to complain about it.



Gary Thompson
Saginaw Valley State University
University Center, MI  48710
517-790-4308
fax 517-790-7638

"No matter how cynical I get, I just can't keep up."
				--Lily Tomlin