absence/presence

[Doug Millison]

If the "absence" serves to focus the reader on the the absent term after
all, and if this "absence" is reinforced with strategically placed direct
references to the otherwise "absent" term, how is that different from a
positive presence?  If anything, the absent term takes on more power, from
being framed in this negative way -- it's the "invisible" elephant in the
living room that nobody talks about, at the same time nobody can ignore its
presence .

"Terrance":
"Along the way
he opens a thousand windows and as many doors into 
Pynchon's fiction and constructs one of the most unique
readings of Pynchon to date."


I agree with you here.  Too bad Hollander is not in this conversation but I
completely understand why he left in the face of hateful badgering and
insults from "jbor" and "David Morris".

I think Hollander's choice not to kowtow to the latest fad in jargon-laden
lit-crit theory and instead focus on Pynchon's text and Pynchon the artist
is viewed with a certain degree of condescension and even scorn by some --
that seems apparent in the reception H's work gets from "jbor"; that's not
what's at play in the case of "David Morris" of course, she apparently just
needs somebody to insult at regular intervals throughout the day.