Uromania

[Dave Monroe]

... well, as one Who both Knows Who He Is, and is Concerned, indeed, I agree.
Of course, you will most likely NOT be around to read this, but ...

... but it seems that there have been a few already who have been cajoled off
this list (Terrance, and I haven't seen Doug 'round tehse parts for a bit, for
starters) even in the short time I've been subscribing, and I've been insulted,
ridiculed or otherwise discouraged at least as badly as anyone here, so far as
I've seen.  I've perhaps just not been around long enough to be really worn
down by it, but I'm not one to be easily bullied--and the "facelessness" here I
think does little to discourage the nastiness, just how much of this really
WOULD be going on in, say, a classroom, or within, say, fist's reach of
another?--nor am I much of one to concede a point by default (so there are some
matters of interpretation here I'll no doubt feel obligated to address again
...).  But I've seen, put up with far worse (hey, just try dealing with Ayn
Rand fans sometime), so ...

Beyond the "bickering," however, there will undoubtedly be much here which will
NOT interest you nonetheless.  Much of it might indeed be about Pynchon's
texts, even.  There is much NOT necessarily about Pynchon here, either, though
it might well be worth following up on nonetheless (hyperlinks, info of
interest, recommended reading, and so forth).  But I think much of the
"extraneous" chit-chat is in the name of "community" in some sense or another,
establishing commonalities, differences, perphaps prosopoetically (word?)
esatblishing those absent(ed) "faces,"
and, as such, is hardly a Bad Thing.  FrodeauxB is right in that regard, there
IS always that "Delete" key, and, well, hey, sorry if I've disinterested anyone
here myself.  Have been Trying to say a little something of use, but ...



Stacy Borah wrote:

> To Whom It May Concern: (You know who you are)
>
> I have only been a subscriber to this list for about a week now, and I must
> say I'm not that impressed.  I had expected an intelligent forum where
> like-minded persons could virtually convene and rationally discuss a common
> passion: Thomas Pynchon.  So, it was with great anticipation that the day
> after I entered my subscription that I logged onto my email site and
> discovered I had 65 new messages!  I thought, Cool!  Now I have something
> worthwhile to read in my email other than insipid and infantile jokes that
> friends of my roommate send me and offers of free goods/services that don't
> interest me.
> However, when I finally read all the emails, less than 25% of them dealt
> with anything I found relevant.  There were some messages with very
> insightful commentaries on Tarot cards and binary oppositions and whatnot,
> but most of them had all these bickering little messages strewn into them,
> targeting certain members on this list.  And, I just want to say, "ENOUGH
> GODDAMNIT!!!"  I'm tired of sitting at my computer and thinking each new
> message will actually have something interesting within it, only to open it
> up and find another name-calling post or a personal jab at a faceless
> member.  I'll go back and re-read all my bound critical volumes on Pynchon
> that my friend copied off for me at Kinko's over 6 years ago.  They're
> well-thumbed and aged, but, Jesus Christ, at least my eyes don't have
> negative images of bitter emails on them after I'm done.  As of this email,
> my address will be taken off the list.  I really wanted to contribute
> something to this list, but I don't have any time to sift through all these
> emails just to find something interesting that I would want to reply to.
> So, take care, guys.  I hope your little dispute gets resolved without
> bloodshed.
>
> Stacy Borah