Uromania

[Stacy Borah]

Well, I'm still here, despite what my tired eyes and my better judgement 
says.  And, I'm sorry to say, I've even indulged in a little sniping myself 
(re: my recent posting directed at FrodeauxB).  I'm normally not one who is 
easily bullied either, Dave.  But, I'm just tired of spending so much time 
deleting bullshit emails that have no purpose other than to shoot down 
someone else's ego.  And, I have also wondered what the carnage would look 
like if we were all in a classroom huddled around each other's battered 
faces, our delete buttons pressed violently into each other's skulls.  I 
mean, that's all I see when I open these emails.  And as far as Ayn Rand 
fans are concerned, -- I don't even want to know who they are.

In regards to Pynchon's "texts" and how to read them -- like I told Richard, 
the only way to read Pynchon is how Pynchon himself intended the text to be 
read.  And since he's not talking, why should we talk about a "right" or 
"wrong" way to read it?  It only seems to engender more backbiting and 
sniping.

Stacy



>From: Dave Monroe <monroe at mpm.edu>
>To: Stacy Borah <sborah99 at hotmail.com>
>CC: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: Uromania
>Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2000 09:40:15 -0500
>
>... 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
>

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