(no subject)

[Muchasmasgracias at cs.com]

In a message dated 5/10/00 2:48:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
pmackin at clark.net writes:

<< Anyway my point isn't GR particularly but novel writing in general. I must
 admit that though I'm a Pynchon fan I don't much approve of requiring
 novels to conform to so called philosophical truth if that is indeed what
 P was about in GR. >>

Not only do I consider Pynchon's books to be something other than 
philosophical efforts, I think his work--like most anything we call art--is 
non-theoretical, unphilosophical, and not oriented in any way towards the 
production of generalizations.  And after all, Generalizations have been the 
benchmark of the 'love-of-we's-dumb' outfit from Aristotle to Descartes and 
Frege and bla bla bla.  Plenty of philosophers nowadays still hang their hats 
on that peg.  Isn't it still the case that you'll get shown to the door if 
you bring up Derrida in a lot of bigtime philosophy departments in the Anglo 
world?

There are many places in GR where Pynchon mocks the analytical mind of the 
mathematician (pornographies of flight, stone determination of every soul, 
etc. etc.), and given his familiarity with the Tractatus we could take these 
passages as mocking the efforts of modern philosophy.  And the end of the 
book?  It's like a missile falling on Plato's Cave.   (Although didn't Pascal 
say that mocking philosophy is practicing philosophy?)

But this could just be a bunch of,

BS



Appendices--

Name-dropping:  anybody read a book by one of Rorty's colleagues at Virginia, 
"Poetry Against Philosophy" (I think that's the name of it) by an English 
teacher named Edmundson?  Very fascinating book.  And since Rorty keeps 
coming up, did anyone read the book he put out a couple years ago about the 
history of the (academic?) left in 20th century america?  Rorty likes to 
stress being positive about constructing a better future, and in one of the 
book's appended essays he cites Vineland as an example of a leftist thinker 
(Pynchon) who is being somewhat shiftless and paranoid and unconstructive.

Best 20th Century philosopher as voted by contemporary professional 
philosophers:  Wittgenstein, far and away, probably because he mocked their 
efforts more roundly than anyone else for the past 100 years (at least among 
those they deem to be "philosophical").

The most hilarious philosophical essay of all time:  Moore's "Proof of an 
External World", in which it is demonstrated that excessive analysis can make 
you so blind that you can barely see your hand in front of your face.