pynchon-l-digest V2 #1612

[Doug Millison]

Mackin: "Why is it important to try to
decide upon specific  socio-polico-historic  meanings in P's words? "

Might as well ask, Why the consistent effort to marginalize 
interpretations that take Pynchon's "socio-polico-historic" content 
seriously?  Especially when this material makes up such a significant 
part of what Pynchon actually puts on the page for us to read? 
Disagree with such interpretations if you will, interpret Pynchon's 
works as you will, but why this persistent call for others to refrain 
from  interpreting the political and historical content of Pynchon's 
work?  This is just a conversation, after all, a group of people 
talking about Pynchon's novels, stories, essays -- all voices deserve 
to be heard, don't you think?  In the bigger picture (beyond 
Pynchon-L) of Pynchon criticism, interpreting the political and 
historical content of Pynchon's works is not at all marginal, it's a 
big part of what Pynchon scholars do, as a brief glance at the table 
of contents of  any issue of Pynchon Notes will show.  PN contains 
articles that approach and interpret Pynchon from other perspectives 
-- the editors take care to give us a spectrum that includes Charles 
Hollander, and I'm glad they don't take the attitude that certain 
lines of inquiry should be closed off or ignored -- and of course 
it's all welcome, Pynchon's work is rich enough to sustain many kinds 
of critical treatment.
-- 
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