re P's intentions

[Can't Wait]

Nice to here [sic] from you, Soren.  I do not think I could ever
adequately describe the relief I feel receiving mail from somebody
other than the godless cancers who are most typically associated with
this heathen list.  The decadent idle chatter propogated along these
subversive wires is most certainly Our sickness unto death.  My
role--these dark days as a tightrope walker across an abyss of
nothingness--is of but the simplest and most glorious virtue: to
spread the word of He who is so big.  Shall we pray?

Dear God, thank you for not existing.  Amen.

I do not, contrary to your opinion, think that an interpretation of a
work--unless of course it be the work of God (which although it is
the greatest and most magnificent work of art in the universe is a
whole nother story)--is made more accurate by being built on a
knowledge of the intentions of the artist, and that is because, being
so infinitely and wonderfully radical in my thinking, I do not even
believe that the artist can be absolutely sure of his intentions.

Although I, being a perpetual worshipper of the Almighty and thus
inherently benevelent [sic], am irrevocably [sic] unprone [sic] and
incapable [sic] of being what was recently and so poorly
characterized as 'nasty', I do vastly prefer such tonalities [sic] to
the everpresent Unctuousness with which some self-appointed members
of the Pynchon board address their ever less-than-Elect preterites. 
This is why I have made a t-shirt that reads I WAS SIC-ED BY THE
PROFESSOR ON THE PYNCHON LIST.

m



--- soren kierkegaard <felwshipofdead at hotmail.com> wrote:
> But wouldn't an interpretation built on the foundation of the
> artist's
> intentions be more accurate?  That is what the artist meant to
> portray, that
> is how he was hoping it would be interpreted.  The interpretations
> he
> foresaw could, (maybe even should) be found for the sake of the
> artist, then
> we can draw whatever interpretations or conclusions we desire,
> disregarding 
> original intentions or following them.  The choice lies in choosing
> whether 
> or not to search, not in the validity of your interpretation.  I
> can't say
> I'm a huge fan of this approach but it does have merit.
> 
> 
> >From: "Can't Wait" <yayforgod at yahoo.com>
> >To: Doug Millison <millison at online-journalist.com>,
> pynchon-l at waste.org
> >Subject: Re: re P's intentions
> >Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 11:34:59 -0700 (PDT)
> >
> >
> >Yes I agree with you "Doug".  I was reacting primarily to a notion
> I
> >thought I grasped a glimpse of in your post, something about the
> >possibility of a Necessary knowledge of the artist and his
> intentions
> >for the sake of a True, more-correct-than-all-others,
> interpretation,
> >not too much knowledge or too little knowledge but just the right
> >amount of knowledge.  Okay I can see now that me 'glimpsing' that
> was
> >absurd...?  I am the last person on earth to knock mindless
> >pleasures, even mindful pleasures, hell even good ol fashioned
> plain
> >pleasures, especially where ill-mannered cranks (I prefer smug
> snots)
> >are concerned, who never cease to knock my brain flat to the floor
> >with the irony of the SERiousness with which they groove into a
> >masterpiece originally titled, for God's sake, Mindless Pleasures.
>  I
> >don't even Remember the book, my interpretations are based soley
> on
> >what I pick up here (today I've thrown in cocaine-residued Tarot
> >cards) and what I throw in mindlessly, carelessly, violently,
> >mockingly, and my interpretation (whatever the hell an
> interpretation
> >is, after all) are globs more interesting than the scholars', and
> >every bit as right.  At least I think my interpretation of the
> >Rainbow is more interesting (though I have one at the moment only
> in
> >theory) than professor Monroe's (whom by mentioning I certainly am
> >not implicating as a smug snot, necessarily, because I enjoy his
> >style).  He probably has a quite contrary view on the matter.
> >
> >m
> >
> >
> >
> >--- Doug Millison <millison at online-journalist.com> wrote:
> > > Couldn't agree more when "MichaelB" says that knowing about the
> > > artist and the artist's intentions gives "pleasure to the
> process
> > > of
> > > interpretation, as hobbies do." I'm certainly not into this
> Pynchon
> > >
> > > reading thing for the money; maybe some of the people who do
> make a
> > >
> > > for-profit career of it -- or who would like to do --  are the
> ones
> > >
> > > who get so uptight about foreclosing the amateur's pleasures,
> or
> > > maybe they're just ill-mannered cranks. It's also true that
> more
> > > than
> > > one esteemed literary critic has devoted considerable time and
> > > effort to understanding a favored artist's life and work, I
> recall
> > > as
> > > I look at the copy of Jean-Yves Tadie's biography, _Marcel
> Proust_
> > > on
> > > my bookshelf (I just saw a copy of the English translation in
> Black
> > >
> > > Oak Books over in Berkeley yesterday) next to his masterful
> Pleiade
> > >
> > > edition of _A la recherche du temps perdu_, and manage to work
> a
> > > knowledge of the artist into ther appreciation of the work.  If
> you
> > >
> > > want to put the artist and the art in "different worlds,
> different
> > > galaxies, different universes" -- a proposition that seems
> absurd
> > > to
> > > me, unless you have some kind of special definition for
> "world,"
> > > "galaxy," and "universe" -- go for it, but that doesn't mean
> that
> > > other readers have to follow your lead.
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > >
> > > d  o  u  g    m  i  l  l  i  s  o  n
> ><http://www.online-journalist.com>
> >
> >
> >
> >__________________________________________________
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> >Yahoo! Mail - Free email you can access from anywhere!
> >http://mail.yahoo.com/
> 
>
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