JS

[Doug Millison]

re: http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9610&msg=422&sort=author,
kai said, "i would like to receive more p-mails that reach this level 
of intensity ..."

Happily, we don't currently seem to have anybody on the P-list who 
can match the malignant motivation that informed JS's trolling 
expedition.  Which is not to say that others haven't tried; but 
nobody has had an overarching sense of purpose to match JS's desire 
to reestablish his career as a journalist at Pynchon's expense at a 
time when Pynchon would once again be in the news with the 
publication of M&D.  One of our company came close, when trying to 
make a Pynchon studies rep by insulting an established Pynchon 
scholar on the P-list (we don't need to mention any names, though, do 
we?), but he couldn't really keep it up the way JS could. It takes 
stamina -- in addition to a certain genius for manipulation -- to 
keep a grudge going the way JS has for the past 4 and more decades.

Recall -- or perhaps hear for the first time -- that JS ran away from 
Pynchon-L with his tail between his legs after Lineland came out and 
proved to be the embarrassingly weak work that it is, and after the 
Pynchon-L community, which JS wanted so badly to impress with his 
insider knowledge of TRP, called JS on his journalistically dishonest 
and manipulative bs.  Consider that even as JS tried to discuss 
Pynchon's work in deep-thinker mode in the context of an incoherent 
literary critique, and even as he heaped abuse on GR, it became clear 
-- JS finally admitted it, I think -- that he (JS) hadn't even read 
GR; it's doubtful that JS has read (he certainly hadn't studied, 
judging from the available evidence) any of Pynchon's work.

JS's primary contribution to the conversation about GR has been to 
insist that all of the female characters -- including the Shirley 
Temple character currently under discussion in what's passing for 
GRGR -- were based on his ex-wife Chrissie; this became rather funny 
when JS was asked if that included Katje in the Brigadier Pudding 
scene.  That's also when I began to wonder if Chrissie actually had 
anything to do with the Pynchon-L question and answer "interview" 
with Chrissie that JS concocted (the one in which JS took the 
questions and posted "Chrissie's" replies):  I found it difficult to 
imagine (still do, in fact), that even a cad of JS's calibre would 
insist that Katje's character was a faithful re-creation of Chrissie, 
all the while insisting, in his Pynchon-L posts, that it was 
P-listers who were insulting his ex-wife. That was particularly rich. 
It's possible that the interview actually happened, after all; some 
P-listers had a chance to meet and talk with Chrissie in NYC if I 
remember correctly -- perhaps they know directly from her that it 
actually happened. Taking into account the way JS later sought so 
eagerly to attach Chrissie's personage to some rather distasteful and 
potentially embarrassing characterizations in the novel, it occurred 
to me that at least some of the reasons for their divorce might not 
be so difficult to imagine.

And, I still think it's pretty funny that JS could claim, apparently 
with a straight face, that he was inventing the electronic book, as 
he does at length in Lineland. Yeah, and Al Gore invented the 
Internet, and Bill Clinton didn't inhale or bring Monica to orgasm.

Just a few things to keep in mind as you hagiographers write the 
story of St. Siegel.

Kai, you can probably reach JS by email down in Cancun. Tell him you 
think Pynchon is a great writer and I expect you'll receive an 
intense reply.  I wouldn't be surprised if he explained to you how 
his ex-wife thinks he (JS) is actually a greater writer than Pynchon. 
And don't forget to ask him to explain the simple gimmicks that 
Pynchon used to write GR, the tricks Pynchon had to use because of 
his lack of literary talent.

-- 

d  o  u  g    m  i  l  l  i  s  o  n  <http://www.online-journalist.com>