Bersani - Pynchon, Paranoia, and Literature

[jbor]

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>From: "Otto Sell" <o.sell at telda.net>
>Subject: Bersani - Pynchon, Paranoia, and Literature (was: O'Donnell,
"Postmodernity and the Symptom of Paranoia")
>Date: Tue, Feb 6, 2001, 6:33 AM
>

Bersani:

> "The Pychonian opposition between They (IG Farben etc.) and We (Slothrop,
> Mexico, Pirate Prentice, etc.) is a replay of the opposition of Slothrop's
> Puritan forefather's polarity of the Elect and the Preterite. Information
> control is the contemporary version of God's eternal knowledge of each
> individual's ultimate damnation or salvation, and both theology and computer
> technology naturally produce paranoid fears about how we are hooked into the
> system, about the connections it has in store for us." (103)

And thus the whole "We"/"They" binary deconstructs right before our (their?)
very eyes ...

Thanks for the quotes, précis, and your own thoughts Otto.

best