Is it OK to be a Luddite?

[Courtney Givens]

>From: "Paul Mackin" <paul.mackin at verizon.net>
>
>The clincher for me on the essay is the quirky (cranky, apocalyptic)
>ending--including those "converging curves" that Pynchon jokingly wants to
>go on record insisting we heard about  first from him. What's  wrong with a
>joke we might ask.  What wrong is that perhaps up to this point we were
>taking his glib summary of events at face value but now we are suddenly
>faced with the possibility that the whole thing is a big put on. Of course
>we don't know for sure. This kind of ambiguity goes better with novel
>writing that nonfiction. Of course in the end what difference does a silly
>newspaper piece make. We still love you Tom.


I can't agree with you here Paul. As much as I cringe
when P-listers suggest that Pynchon is a prophet
or prescient, I think here he is not joking to
undermine (deliberately) his essay by  introducing  ambiguity.
What he has done in fact, is introduce a cliché in order
to make fun, but not to underminde his point.
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