I'm so spoiled

[Craig Bleakley]

I move that *all* messages to the P-list henceforth include a spoiler
warning regarding the page number of any particular P-text which gets
referenced, for the sake of new readers who may not know that Slothrop's
erections, or Inverarity's stamps, or v-v-v-v--you know, for the folks who
are having their first experience with Pynchon.  C'mon, you wouldn't want to
deprive them of the pristine reading of these works you once had, and are
currently (and IMHO illogically) trying to have with M&D, would you now?

I'm also intrigued by this idea of the M&D Spoiler Expiration Date.  For
reasons related to the above.  For whom do they expire?  

Even if something doesn't label itself as M&D-related, how far do you need
to read into it to find out, and to stop reading before anything important
gets revealed?  I wouldn't know because, 1) I'm not yet ready to wrestle
with M&D and 2)I'm deleting anything that politely identifies itself as
having to do with the novel.  That doesn't mean I'm not reading reviews, or
trying to get a general drift, or will be offended if someone mentions that
Mssrs. M&D may run into a few historical characters.   

What I hear people saying is that they don't want any more context than they
already have--but what they already have (Pynchon's previous works,
contemporary American literature, whatever history anyone knows about
aesthetically informed communication) far outweighs anything they're likely
to hear here in terms of how it will predetermine their reading.

The logical end of this Stringent Spoiler Enforcement seems to me to be the
disbanding of the list, lest anyone get any ideas they wouldn't have all by
their little lonesomes.

Does anyone feel that their reading of M&D has somehow been "violated"
because of anything that's been posted here?  Any reader of any earlier
P-work feel that way?

This "pure reading" stuff is a romantic lie.  Criminney, if you're not here
to get new ideas, new connections  . . .

What is this spoiler rule all about and what's the power dynamic behind it? 

What cemetery scene?

Craig Bleakley
Curmudgeon/bitch goddess/devil's advocate