Pynchon-Tinasky

[Dave Monroe]

Okay, not much time tonight, so ...

--- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
> 
 You seem to be
> missing the whole point
> of the Tinasky debate, which is whether Pynchon is
> or isn't "Wanda". 

Actually, it seems to me that the real concern is over
what the implications of Pynchon having written the
Tinasky letters might be.  No one seems all too
concerned about this Hawkins guy having written them
...

And,
> whatever caveats you might attempt to construct
> about it, the fact of the
> matter is that it is "Wanda" -- and not Anderson or
> W.S. Burroughs -- who
> labelled Alice Walker a "purple-assed baboon".

And note those appropriate quotation marks there.  No
matter what, "Wanda" is being collapsed onto "her"
author.  And, again, authors will put into the mouths
(for starters) of their characters, their creations,
their constructs, all sorts of things that they might
never sign with their own names.  So why again aren't
we defending Hawkins' or whoever's good name here?

> >  Pynchon has his own
> > (perhaps inscutable, but ...) self-interests as
> much
> > as anybody does, esp. in a case fraught with as
> much
> > weirdness as l'affaire Tinasky.
> 
> Which is probably why he decided to put an end to
> the speculation. But, at
> least as far as you're concerned it seems, it's a
> case of "damned if he does
> and damned if he doesn't".

Not damning at all.  Again, I've no pressing concern
with whether or not Pynchon actually wrote (any
of--again, that possibility, perhaps even likelihood,
seeing as letters signed "Wanda Tinasky" arrived well
after their now-presumed author's death, of multiple
authorship--) those letters, and I thinkn that whoever
wrote them is multiply distanced from any insult to
Alice Walker.  Perhaps not from a bevy of local poets,
but ...

> > Eric has consistently
> > raised perfectly good points here
> 
> I think what Eric contended, essentially, was that,
> as the alleged
> letter-writer, Pynchon went "bonkers", and that, in
> subsequently denying
> that he was "Wanda", he is a liar. Surely this is
> "questionable
> argumentation"?

That was, I believe, a grasp at an explanation for why
Pynchon might have written those letters.  Other
points raised, points which I've reitereated,
concerning arguments that Pynchon did or did not write
those letters are still valid.
 
> > And exactly how much do we know about Thoams
> Pynchon
> > "in the real world"?
> 
> Have you read Pynchon's published non-fiction, the
> _Slow Learner_ 'Intro',
> the intros to the Barthelme collection and _Stone
> Junction_, the letter of
> support for Salman Rushdie, that letter to Thomas
> Hirsch? 

Well, now you're being disingenuous.  But haven't read
the Barthelme intro., which I only heard about since
joining this list.  Will get around to it when it
crosses my path ...

(Let alone the
> novels!)

Again ...

 If you had you would surely realise that
> Pynchon's attitudes,
> literary style, self-image, and the respect he shows
> for other writers,
> artists and intellectuals, are so far removed from
> that demonstrated by
> "Wanda" to render the whole notion that "she" is
> Pynchon an absolute
> absurdity.

Still enjoy that response to that guy in re: "Genghis
Cohen" ... but you're reading an awful lot into a very
little here.  In the menatime, I belive you've had no
compunction about blowing aside matters of his
apparent political, social, economic, even familial
background ...
 
> (And, as for your continuing misreading of Blicero's
> character and the
> interpretations offered by many reputed critics as
> well as other
> participants in this discussion, your own penchant
> for sarcasm and
> "nastiness" here, your persecution and vilification
> of particular listers
> and attempts to foreclose their right to express a
> pov, 

Right back atcha, though you will note that I reserve
my "nastiness," "persecution" and/or
"vilification"--synonymous with "disagreement" and
"critique" here, apparently--exclusively for your very
own self.  And I'd hardly attempt the impossible here,
i.e., shutting anybody up here.  These little
dominance games of yours are getting tiring, however,
though you will note that I've been far less "nasty"
in saying as much as those whose patience you've
really tried here ...

your apparent
> alliance with "big one" ... well, it just goes to
> show, doesn't it ... )

And, of course, this persistent drawing of lines here,
this "if yr not with me, yr agin' me" crap.  Again, I
simply cannot imagine this kind of behavior in a
classroom, in any sort of face-to-face encounter
whatsoever.  G'day, mate ...


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