NP Point of Information (was Re: Pynchon & rap)

[jbor]

on 7/22/01 9:50 PM, davemarc at davemarc at panix.com wrote:

>> on 7/22/01 6:52 AM, davemarc at davemarc at panix.com wrote:
>> 
>>> From: jbor <jbor at bigpond.com>
>>>> 
>>>> Actually, Ken McVay, the Holocaust history expert whom one of
> Millison's
>>>> cronies suggested should be contacted to "settle" the matter made the
>>>> following comment to me:
>>>> 
>>> Who is this "crony"?
>> 
>> I'm guessing you?
> 
> You're the one who wrote the remark in the first place.  I'm certainly not
> about to presume authorial intent in your case.

OK, as I recall it whoever did suggest at the time that the "experts" be
contacted to "settle" the matter had decided that it was a dispute over
whether or not prisoners in Dora were or weren't or could be defined as
Holocaust victims, which was a very narrow and/or one-sided statement of
said matter.

>>> And in what sense is this "crony" a crony?
>> 
>> "A friend or companion." (Collins) But I'm willing to retract the phrase
>> with apologies if it causes offence.
>> 
> No need to retract the phrase if you can support it.  But if you can't
> support it, then I don't understand your reason for making the remark.

It was the impression I had at the time. But it does seem odd to me that the
description "one of Millison's cronies" is a bone of contention with you now
(though I can certainly appreciate the offence in being erroneously claimed
as such) while at the same time false accusations of "Holocaust-denial" (or,
to be precise, of "echoing Holocaust-denier rhetoric"), as well as of being
a neo-Nazi, and of using anti-Semitic slurs, are made with apparent impunity
by Doug on a regular and ongoing basis. The insinuated false accusation of
Holocaust-denial, as far as I was and am concerned, was the real issue of
the matter at the time. Quibbles about calling someone someone else's
"friend" by comparison seem somewhat, not to put too fine a point on it,
trivial.

best