to V. or not to V.

[Greg Montalbano]

At 01:08 PM 9/14/00 -0400, kevin wrote:
>>The list has fallen into complete disaray, and, shall I say, intellectual
>and communicative entropy, and you see this as a reason _not_ to do a V.
>read?
>
>Sometimes you read these things because you want to, and sometimes because
>you need to.  I think the list needs _V._ more than anything.
>
>Kevin Troy
>

Speaking as one who's been on & off the list for several years (recently
more off than on) (but you could say that about a lot of things in my
life), and one whose first exposure to Pynchon was reading a drugstore
paperback copy of V in 1968 (lemme tell you, THAT was an experience ---
"who IS this guy???"), I would suggest that a reading of V might be just
what is needed.... GR was, among (many, many, many) other things, WWII --
seems fitting to proceed to his first novel, which is POST-WWII;  we'll
still be in historical mode, and faced with many animated debates on the
state of being inanimate.
As far as the flare-ups & bruised feelings, well ... I've been involved in
my share (anybody remember ANDREW?  anybody remember STEELEY?), and I
happen to think that, sooner or later, most of us reach point X and learn
to ignore & avoid them.  
~G  (the OTHER other white meat)
________________________________________________________________________
I've always told people that for each person there is a sentence -- a
series of words -- which has the power to destroy him.  ...I realized (this
came years after the first realization) that another sentence exists,
another series of words, which will heal the person.  If you're lucky you
will get the second;  but you can be certain of getting the first:  that is
the way it works.
         VALIS,  Philip K Dick