V.V. (12) Pynchon's letter to Thomas F. Hirsch

[Dave Monroe]

Oops, guess I wasn't hearing things after all ...

Well, I don't know.  Surprised you have a problem with
my little deconstruction of Pynchon's "preliterate"
there.  Figured the similarity to Levi-Strauss'
comments on the Nambikwara and the opening for
comments along the lines of Derrida's on Levi-Strauss,
would--or, at least, should--have been obvious to
someone who's managed to deploy an occasional
"logocentrism" here himself.  Hell, that's the first
time I've keyed in Derrida's neologism here ...

But--and again here's where it might not have hurt to
consult my actual post (posted recently enough that I
don't feel obligated to hyperlink to it here)--do note
that those "two"--"at least two"--"ways to approach
that letter" were not "interpretation of" and
"argument against" (by the way, until now, I'd have
assumed that  the latter there would require the
former, though I think you've just shown how that
seeming necessity can be short-circuited here ...),
but, rather, "as indicative of how certain elements
might be operating in those Pynchonian texts," esp.
those Pynchonian fictions, "or as the text under
consideration itself," that is, as the so-called
"primary" text.  

Out of an ultimately infinity of possibilities, one
can, in the first of those "at least two nways," read
that letter--as will likely be the case--in relation
to the fictions, the essays, other letters, jacket
blurbs, whatever, other texts signed, authorized with
the name "Thomas Pynchon," or, in the second of those
"ways," "just" read the letter.  Of course, I "just"
read the letter in relation to not only Jacques
Derrida's Of Grammatology, but also Claude
Levi-Strauss' Tristes Tropiques, but ... but, well,
one in never really reading "just" the text at hand,
is one?  Always already intertexts ...

This may or may not involve "argument,"
"contestation," whatever, but it hardly necessitates
any absolute state of such.  One might well indeed
take issue with "some of" what someone says, writes,
whatever, while remaining ever vigilantly, ever
provisionally content with adajacent (textually,
canonically) statements.  Baby, bathwater ...

I should have noted, though, that Pynchon seems to be
positing a German "unity" which not only had never
been "broken" (seeing as it never really quite existed
in the first place), but which, having been
successfully deployed in the late nineteenth century
to make a geopolitical fact of a
linguistic/literary/biological fiction, was pressed
into service several decades later vis a vis The
Sudetenland and Austria as well.  Well, guess I'd
better go throw out the baby with the bathwater after
all.  On the other hand, you can't win 'em all, no? 
Sheesh ...

--- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
> 
> ----------
> >From: Dave Monroe <davidmmonroe at yahoo.com>
> >
> 
> > There are at least two ways in which to approach
> that
> > letter
> 
> Of course: interpretation of and argument against
> are separate things. But,
> in my reading, you seem to interpret the letter in
> one way when it suits
> you, and then contest the very act of interpretation
> when dismissing other
> people's interpretations of the same letter. As well
> as this, you seem to be
> hedging your bets by contesting (some of) Pynchon's
> statements, arguments
> and interpretations within the letter. (Perhaps this
> is your "fall back"
> position.)
> 
> As you say, you can't rightly invoke "absolute
> relativism" and make "yr very
> own value judgments" as well. Well, you can try, but
> it's still a matter of
> operating under a double standard.
> 
> best
> 
> (ps Are you trying to suggest that "big one" isn't
> ... ? Or that you applaud
> the tactic used by "big one"?!)

Isn't what?  But you're (quelle) surprised that
someone out there not only disagrees with you, but
just doesn't like you as well?  There is an Australian
ed. of SciAm, I believe, wonder if it contains a very
interesting article in the current issue Stateside. 
But, really, I better go before they kick me out. 
Just can't stop chuckling here.  I've got ye-ye
records to pick up, Beckett plays to see, so ...

Am not a relativist, nor was meant to be.

wurst,


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