Those Hollander Essays Again

[Paul Mackin]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Terrance" <lycidas2 at earthlink.net>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 03, 2001 11:10 AM
Subject: Re: Those Hollander Essays Again


> James Jesus Angleton?
>
> This is how Hollander introduces the CIA to his essay.
>
> This connection, one of  two key in the essay (the other
> being Dallas)  is doesn't open the door to the JFK
> assassination.
>
> It may seem a stretch, Hollander says, after he has tied up
> and damned people to hell with Pynchon's novella.
>
> If Pynchon fears for his life and writes in code to protect
> himself why would Hollander break the code?
>
> The same targets of Hollander's (not Pynchon's) essays  are
> under attack here on the Pynchon List. Does that mean
> Hollander is right? No, but his essays are the subject of
> the Pynchon List again.
>


Not quite sure what the final paragraph here of your post means. Are you
saying even though Hollander's reading--that the book is a coded revelation
of CIA actions to kill JFK--is a weak (though interesting) reading, it still
happens to coincide wtih the readings of a signifcant number of p-listers
who accordingly tend to find Hollander an interesting topic for discussion.
You don't say this exactly but it might be what you have in mind. I'm
asking. But to go on with Hollander,  the weakness of the reading for you
would be that the  interpretation  is not justified by the words P has
placed on the page--that such an interpretation contains too much reader and
not enough writer. You demonstrate instances of  misreading with examples
such as the Varo Varro thing. With regard to p-listers who follow Hollander
an obvious question would be how and why they come to accept,  with or
independently of Hollander, a Hollander-like interpretation.  Something in
the specific p-text must be causing this. Would these readers interpret
other swinging or cool  writers in a similar way? Is there any way to
approach this. . Hate to say it but I just don't know.

                    P.