WWII Nazi/American corp. collaboration

[keith woodward]

At 01:45 PM 12/3/98 EST, MundaneD wrote:

>That you are, and I believe you mean well.  Nevertheless, a couple of
>comments.  One, I think you may trust that references that are not obscure
>(but may become so with time) need not, in the present, be ferreted out.  They
>are easily found.  Two, you might ask yourself who--in whatever distant future
>finds reference to Richard Nixon obscure--will go for his answer to your
>decades-old emails?
>
>From the intro to _Vineland_ name index (PNotes 36-39):

"In fact [compiling the index] actually cost us quite a lot of time, since
Frankfurt is obviously not the best place to look up the names of American
game-show hosts or radio-show characters.  Thus, the following index is
almost certainly incomplete, occasionally faulty, and definitely improvable."

The point being: when we started this project, posters outside of the U.S.
requested that the hosts clear up numerous American cultural references in
VL as (I think the passage above indicates) they are difficult (in some
cases) to research outside of the U.S.  I don't think MC Diggedy D will
disagree with any attempts to provide glosses for those cases.  As scholars,
however, it is also necessary that the annotations be coherent and that we
attempt to be objective.  In other words, being too discriminatory as  to
who the reader will identify and who s/he won't can ultimately defeat the
purpose of annotating in the first place.  Sure, everyone knows who Richard
Nixon is, but I have no doubt that there are younger P readers out there
(perhaps outside of the U.S.) who haven't heard of "Tricky Dick".  Even if
everyone has, it is in the interest of good scholarship to retain the same
level of inclusivity throughout the annotations, as Peter has.  I can
certainly understand why the "Dick" gloss might be seen as unnecessary, but
I'm confused about "D"'s response to it.  I'm confused in regard to what has
offended him/her, as I cannot find evidence of him/her being addressed in
the annotations. These responses (we all know), however, are common, a
gag-reflex.  Generally they are counter productive, rude, and poorly thought
out; I wonder if M~D is in some way working through his/her own problems
(whatever they may be: intellectual boredom, frustration with students,
etc.) through these responses.  If this is the case, then, contrary to our
discussion of Pynchon, it "is another problem entirely, perhaps more
psychiatric than literary, and I certainly hope he (?) works it out" (---TRP).


Keith W

>--others posting here seem to be pleased to find the list serving the purpose
>of electronic clearinghouse for banal and trivial information (for the
>hypothetical and ostensible benefit of a reader in Godthaab (town, southwest
>coast of Greenland ("green"-"land," i.e., land which is green (perhaps
>ironic?)))) and the yet-unborn, but I guess I find it unnecessary, tedious,
>and depressing. 
>