While We Stand Aside and Look

[Mitchell R Coffey]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nikola Bonobo <kingcreon at yahoo.com> at Internet
> Sent: Saturday, July 24, 1999 11:42 AM
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org at INTERNET
> Subject: While We Stand Aside and Look
>
> 1.Anybody got an estimate of Pynchon's IQ?

Well into the triple digits.

> 2.What do you think Marilyn vos Savant thinks of him?

Hasn't a clue, I suspect, can't make a

> 3.Leonardo da Vinci versus Pynchon,
> brain radiation contest. Who wins?

Consider: Pynchon's been able to get most of his work published in his life
time.

> 4.Has anyone noticed that the Grateful Dead
> lyricist Robert Hunter shares Pynchon's
> Rilke influence?

No, I don't believe anybody has.


> 5.Has anyone checked out Robert Hunter's
> The Bride of Entropy?

For sure.  His "The Return of Entropy" also.

> 6.Who is The Duke? Is he friends with The Archduke?

First question first:

No, but he did work for him.

Second:

The Duke, being a duke, made him sort of Assistant Archduke.  He became Acting
Archduke when the Archduke was shot by Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo,
precipitating World War One.  Perhaps we are talking about different people.


> 7.Shall we attempt to flatten it all out?

Not if it's oblate to begin wiht.

> 8.How can I escape this hyperdimensional
> gambit without dying?

Medicare.

> 9.Does anyone want to help me build The Arc?

Heck, no: I live in Maryland, it's a friggin _dought_ 'round here.  What need
have we for an arc?  Besides, all those animals... shee... gives me the
willies...

> 10.Has anyone on this list been
> professionally tagged 'schizotypal'?

No, but my friend here has.

> 11.How many people are reading this?

Both.

> 12.Why don't sharks eat clowns?

The shoes.  The tassels.  Everything.

> 13.Where, exactly, is the Prairie of Desperate
> Immensity?

Kansas.  As Dorthy.

> 14.Why are you being tested?

Because I live.

> 15.Have any of you seen The Old Ones
> who tend to float upside down with
> luminous skin?

Close.  I once worked for a committee of the House of Representatives.

> 16.Any members of The Punctured Class?

Several of the more senior Republicans.

> 17.Do you ever get the feeling that Thomas Pynchon
> is watching you?

Um, know.  I haven't got it that bad.

> 18.Have there been discussions on this list
> of 23 synchronicities vis-a-vis Pynchon?

Possibley.

> 19.Two Words: Gravity's Leprechaun. Comment.


1. Sure'n ah scrimmin' cim acroos tha' ski.

2. Not "In The Zone", but "In The Pale".

3. Ends, not in a movie theater, but with a pot of gold.


> 20.Who is the most passionate contributor to this
> list?

n/a

> 21.Who is the most disturbed contributor
> to this list?

n/a

> 22."That banana shaped object is no banana."
> Anyone know where this came from?

I've seen it attributed to Werner Von Braun.


> 23.Were any of you completely discouraged
> from adolescent dreams of literary greatness
> after discovering Pynchon?


Nope.  Not adolescent dreams.


> If anyone feels that these question are
> disrespectful, pompous, nugatory,
> inappropriate, or just plain stupid,
> I deeply apologize ahead of time
> and insist that I am nevertheless a
> fountain of incontinent sincerity,
> compelled by the almighty unobvious.

No need to apologize, I have days like that myself.


Mitchell Coffey
_______________________________________________________

"The future belongs to color photograpy."

     -- Adolph Hitler