Pynchon's weaknesses

[Doug Millison]

Let me see if I've got this straight. Heaping praise and superlatives 
on Thomas Pynchon --- perennially short-listed for the Nobel Prize; 
in his lifetime the subject of conferences, an academic journal, web 
sites, a listserve discussion, a veritable library of books and 
monographs, European tours, and more, all devoted solely to his work; 
called by reputable critics the greatest living novelist writing in 
English and ranked by others with the best writers in English ever -- 
somehow amounts to "hagiography," even when counterbalanced with 
nuanced discussion of the works (I refer you to MDMD, VLVL, and even 
some passages in the current ragtag excuse of a GRGR, if you doubt 
that the spectrum of Pynchon-L discussion about Pynchon's works 
ranges from negative to hagiographic). If that's true, then I'm quite 
happy to be included among the Pynchon-L hagiographers...especially 
when I see who is trying to score points by offering up hagiography, 
hagiographic, and hagiographer as insults in this context, and who's 
jumping on that bandwagon.

Yes, I do keep forgetting that Pynchon-L, which to me does in some 
ways represent a virtual living room where people who share an 
interest in Pynchon and his writings can gather for conversation, to 
others is a professional wrestling ring only nasty for real.  This is 
a Pynchon-L conversation topic that predates any of the current crop 
of yahoos and trolls whose preferred method for attracting attention 
on Pynchon-L is the cyber-equivalent of -- to continue the 
scatological metaphor that seems to have captured TrollMalign's fancy 
-- dropping their drawers, pissing in the swimming pool, and making 
sure everybody's watching while they do it.

As ever,
Doug "Mr. Nanny" Millison

Pre-emptive Solace (P.S.):  Malign, Morris, RJ, & etc., you're still 
able to post what you wish on Pynchon-L; this remains an unmoderated 
discussion.

P.P.S. Ned Flanders or Homer Simpson?  Which do you want it to be?