who's Christian?

[jbor]

----------
>From:<millison at online-journalist.com>
>

Doug, why don't you practise what you preach, both in your onlist snipes and
your offlist intimidations of new participants, and not respond at all to
the listers such as myself whom you so despise. I'm more than happy not to
have to engage with you. So, how about it?

Terrance's personas, both the ones which post from lycidas and those which
don't, have in my opinion been an annoyance, both on-list and off, for
several years. I stated that I'd rather not engage with him (or them) at
all, in the interests of engendering a bit more civility here. No "beef",
just a simple request. I'm not attempting to stop you or anyone else
engaging with anyone (that's *your* style), merely seeking a compromise.

As to the question of whether Pynchon is a "religious writer" or, as I
understand the implication that both you and he wish to make (without ever
having the gumption to say it directly), that he is a "Christian writer",
I'd be more than happy to read some textual interpretation or quotes which
support such a thesis. And I guess it will be interesting to investigate
this proposition in the upcoming group reads of _Lot 49_ and _Mason & Dixon_
(the latter especially, to investigate whether he might have *turned into* a
religious or Christian writer in later life), but on the strength of the
other works I've reread in the past few years I'd have to say that I
seriously doubt that this is the case. The thing which most dissuades me
from this thesis (even more than the insidious and dishonest way in which it
has been announced and "supported" hereabouts by yourself and "Terrance") is
that if it is "the meaning" that Pynchon intends to convey to me as a reader
of his fiction then he has been so far wide of the mark that I would have to
conclude that he is simply a very bad writer. As far as I'm aware I have no
knee-jerk predisposition against "Christian writers" or "religious writers",
as many of the writers and works I enjoy most could be said to fall into one
or other of these categories.

As I said at the outset: I'm more than happy never to engage with you again.
It's up to you.

best




> What's your beef, "jbor"?  We know who Terrance is; I've spoken with
> him on the telephone and have received snail mail from him.  His
> impersonations are transparent and often fun. Who lurks behind your
> anonymous P-list personae?