Sex & the Swastika

[Terrance F. Flaherty]

rj wrote:
> 
> pm
> > Hard to conceive of any American writer having legal problems over
> > anything he might say about a President.
> 
> I'd say the libel laws would apply, particularly in the civil courts.
> They do here, anyway, as a recent case reported in the media
> demonstrated. The biography of a former governor-general had to be
> recalled, there was a huge settlement payout, the publisher was taken to
> the cleaners (maybe I've got the chronology wrong, but something along
> those lines). The reigning President's still a U.S. citizen, isn't he?
> Same laws of the land apply (except when it comes to lying under oath I
> suppose!)

Here in the U.S. I doubt Pynch had much to fear in terms of
the law. Did he fear the unlawful reach of the law? Did he
fear the unlawful reach of the book business in America? I
doubt it and I think the fact that Pynchon's use of names is
not something he invented, except that he puts his own spin
on them, tells us more than the legalities of naming. 

> 
> Anyhow, this is a pretty trivial point in the context of the larger
> discussion I think.
> 
> best