A Matter of Degrees

[Meg Larson]

"If there is a special hell for writers, it would be in forced
contemplation of their own works"---John Dos Passos

Meg Larson, Editor-in-Chief
_Valley Vanguard_
Saginaw Valley State University
125 Curtiss Hall
517-790-4248
vanguard at tardis.svsu.edu
mgl at tardis.svsu.edu

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> From: Henry Kingman <hkingman at well.com>
> To: Sherwood, Harrison <hsherwood at btg.com>; 'Pynchon-L'
<pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Subject: Re: A Matter of Degrees
> Date: Thursday, September 25, 1997 5:18 PM
> 

> Yet the Chinese and the Jesuits appear to be in cahoots in Minnesota,
where
> those weird lead discs are buried...
> 
> Wasn't it great how George Washington was planning to sell hemp to NY
Fops
> to finance the defensive against the Minnesota Chinese and Jesuits?
Perhaps
> the first instance of government-sponsored domestic drug sales financing
a
> foreign war...? I was ROTF when I read that one....
> 
I don't know how, exactly, this relates, but it brought to mind this:

"He is a living monument to the success of the British trade policy back
during the first century.  This classic hustle is still famous, even today,
for the cold purity of its execution: bring opium from India, introduce it
into China--howdy Fong, this here's opium, opium this is Fong--ah, so, me
eatee!--no-ho-ho, Fong, you smokee, _smokee_, see? pretty soon Fong's
coming back for more and more, so you create an inelastic demand for the
shit, get China to make it illegal, then sucker China into a couple-three
disastrous wars over the right of your merchants to sell opium, which by
now you are describing as sacred.  You win, China loses.  Fantastic" (346).

This passage refers to one Chu Piang, from _GR_, mais oui.  It's always
amazed me how much Pynchon gets out of drugs, beyond the "let's get stoned"
aspect of using drugs.  That phrase, "using drugs" takes on a deeper level
of significance with Pynchon--there's a lot one can gain by using drugs and
it goes way beyond just getting high.  Which takes on a different meaning
to my 70s-raised sensibilities; getting stoned may be the least significant
thing you can do with drugs.

Just blathering but using _any_ reason to pick up The Monolith again, 
Meg