Puzzled

[Paul York]

davemarc wrote:
> 
> I know that some of us (myself included) have suffered lapses and foregone
> the M&D spoiler warning protocol.  But it seems that there are some
> rebel-types who just don't want to go along with it.
> [snip]
> Really, I'm serious.  I'm very curious about this phenomenon.

As far as I know, I am not one of the "incorrigible spirits" you refer 
to (if I've blown any spoiler warnings it's probably just been a case of 
my misunderstanding the procedure).  However, I do have to admit that I 
find the necessity for these warnings a little curious.  Were we reading 
whodunits or technothrillers or somesuch, I would certainly agree with 
the thinking that those who've read ahead shouldn't give away the goods 
to those still enjoying the opening pages.  M&D is a whole different 
monster.  I don't think anyone would have their enjoyment of _Moby Dick_ 
ruined if they were to be told that everyone but Ishmael dies at the end 
and that the whale gets away.  Likewise, much of what I truly enjoy 
about Pynchon's work is its expansiveness (and I'm not just talking 
about the length of the book here), its encyclopedic ambitions, its 
jumbled and layered caches of information and hints towards information,
and its lurking insights, most of which are so intricately woven into 
the works as a whole that I don't see how our encounter with them for 
the first (or even 2nd, 3rd or 17th time) can possibly be ruined by a 
surgically extracted tidbit in an email posting.  IMO M&D simply too 
difficult a book and enriching of an experience to be ruined by any of 
the postings that appear this list (and that's *not* for a lack of real 
substance in some of the postings, either).  In this sense, I think the 
very presence of spoiler warnings makes a statement about a lack of 
complexity in Pynchon's work that is, at best, inaccurate.

Having said all this, of course, I suppose it is only fair, if people 
feel their reading of M&D will be ruined by spoilers, that we try for 
now to adhere to the spoiler warning protocol.  I, too, would be 
interested to hear some other listers opinions on this, either publicly 
or privately.
	Paul