Eminem (was: Influenced by GR?)

[jbor]

jody:

> My original comment was about the lack of absolutes in the realm of
> innocence/guilt.

So 'twas. My bad, sorry.

> You have staked a claim in the area of relative judgements-
> "Just winners and losers..." But you did not elaborate.

Not many black races genociding, colonising or assimilating white ones in
the history books I've looked in. Sorry if I was obscure but I thought this
would be pretty obvious. And that's why I really have to speak out when
apparently intelligent people say absurd things like this

> Yeah, it comes as a surprise to find out that inspite of paragons
> like Tiger Woods, and the Williams sisters, most of "them" are average, or
> worse, whether from nature or nurture, just like the majority of uncolored,
> and like the colorless, use what ever little advantage they might have in
> any given situation to further their own cause.

and seek thereby to excuse two hundred or more years of racial oppression.
I'm quite flabbergasted and disappointed by it in fact. It's the black
person's "averageness" -- their equality -- indeed, their very *humanity* --
which has been constantly and wholeheartedly denied by centuries of white
suprematism.

> The natural prey of English Professors and teaching assistants- a whole
> nother matter, entirely.

Not really, and I would hope that the texts are strong enough to speak for
themselves. But the fact of the matter is that that's where Pynchon is
probably doomed to be most read. As I said, students aren't all caught up in
The System with their own dependants and the need to provide and all the
psychological baggage that goes along with being a "responsible adult" and
"productive citizen" in the society -- sort of like how Zoyd is compelled to
sell out on what he knows in his heart is right once every year -- and so
their attitudes aren't yet bent to the mundane and the materialistic.

> better the empty booth than no booth at all, I suppose.

Yeah, it's that choice of two or more evils again, i'nt it. But "democracy"
is a bit of a sham, surely?

> There is, however, no chance that Pynchon, in his current form, will ever be
> name dropped, let alone read, to any significant extent by "the people," no
> matter how poor the genteel dormer. And maybe that's for the best given the
> nature of things.

Congratulations to yourself and millison on graduating with honours from the
Brock Vond College of Reactionary Cynicism.   : )

"What is most appealing about young folks, after all, is the changes, not
the still photograph of finished character but the movie, the soul in flux
... education, too, as Henry Adams always sez, keeps going on forever."
                                 Pynchon, *Slow Learner* intro.

best


----------
>From: jporter <jp4321 at IDT.NET>
>To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: Re: Eminem (was: Influenced by GR?)
>Date: Mon, Jul 24, 2000, 7:25 PM