Rags and Bones

[Craig Bleakley]

Warning--I am about to spoil M&D 18-19--run for your lives!

Now that 1) I'm on jury duty which gave me a chance to 2) get through
"Longitude", I've finally cracked M&D.  The L.E.D. in Chapter 3 seems the
same sort of litmus test for readers ("if you don't dig this, you'll
probably just want to set this book down now") as the giant adenoid in GR.
If this has been mentioned before, please shoot me down in multi-colored
flames for not keeping pace.

When I enquired into the "power dynamics" of the Spoiler Police, Murthy
suggested that the dynamic in question was "courtesy."  I doubt this, and I
think that Paul York's accurately worded mention of 
>posts bitching up other listers
tends to support my claim.  Oh, and Murthy: as devil's advocate, I don't
mind the heat at all--it's the humidity. . . .

Then there's Keith Brecher's very interesting and entertaining post, parts
to which I'm compelled to respond, mostly the parts about academics being okay
>so long as they acknowledge their ulterior motives and
>don't publish total shit like WRITING/PYNCHON and THE GNOSTIC PYNCHON,
>among many many others, including lots of PYNCHON NOTES, and create some
>bogus critical language meant simultaneously to wow and exclude the
>uninitiated

Well, gee, it seems that a lot of the same sort of talk is used by
non-Pynchonites to describe us--or to dismiss TRP (especially the wowing and
excluding parts).  And you know, I think it's those nasty French
philosophers who thought up that bogus critical language just to spite
Anglo-Saxons.  Amazing that specialists should talk in specialized language.
Good thing doctors, physicists, and computer geeks don't start coining their
own terms for complex phenomena, or we'll all be in the soup.
Dioxyribonucleic acid?  Why not just "gene stuff"?

Yeah, I think "Writing/Pynchon" was gunk, but "Gnostic Pynchon" helped me
figure out my take on Pynchon's take on Christianity.  I haven't seen a
Pynchon Notes lately, but I respect the people who publish it and would
rather have it than not.  Well, you did warn it was a rant, and a good one.
More of an antidote to the P-list Doldrums than a contribution to them, IMHO.  

And Suddenly Silent Jules (if you're still with us): how come you haven't
posted a chunk of "Lineland" here as a sign of comaraderie, of turnabout
being fair play, and to give your subjects/collaborators an opportunity to
develop an informed opinion?

"Ketchup's a code word, okay--" GR, 714

Craig Bleakley