That useful substance

[rj]

Jeremy Osner <jeremy at xyris.com>:

> In the introduction to Slow Learner Pynchon says neither to whom nor
> how, marijuana can be useful. Any notion that it is useful To Artists
> and Storytellers, or it is useful In A Shamanic Context, is the
> reader's.

In the context of the whole text, which is a personal introduction to a
published anthology of his early work -- a memoir in fact, where Pynchon
is speaking quite frankly and openly about himself and his experiences
-- and which centres on his literary influences and development, I doubt
very much that that "useful" refers to pot's utility for haberdashery
and wickerwork. I could be wrong, of course.

The context of this endorsement is quite different from the (context
unspecified, uncorroborated) MDMA quote, or the excerpt from *GR* about
one negative consequence of taking the coke out of Coke in 1904.

Surely you need to read that 1984 "useful" as signifying *something*,
don't you? I do, anyway. Otherwise aren't you implying that Pynchon's
comment is vague, or sloppily-written?

best