A sketch of Pynchonian politics

[Phil Wise]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jane O' Sweet" <lycidas2 at earthlink.net>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2001 6:51 AM
Subject: Re: A sketch of Pynchonian politics


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> ...successful academics, the Presidential
> advisers, the token intellectuals who sit on boards of
> directors/////
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> Of course this is where his SPIRIT is.
>
> Phil:
>
> I wonder if his spirit haunts academic economists that have
> such faith in the economic system of free markets that they
> could believe that growth is "potentially" infinite, if only
> we loosen controls we have developed over it.  A system
> capable of infinite growth must, logically, first overcome
> all barriers, including the barriers that people have in
> their own minds that prevent them from being totally
> committed "enterprise personalities".
>
> lost me???
>
You tell me:-)  Sorry for the arcania; I was responding to some particularly
silly claims recently espoused here about what academic economists claim
about future economic growth.  Pynchon's narrator would appear to be
refering to the way "successful" academics may represent "Their" interests -
so that academic authority might not mean much in a pynchonian context.

The second part of this paragraph suggests that something that can grow
infinitely must be able to overcome all limits to that growth.  This would
include those pesky parts of the human personality that aren't totally
committed to faciliating this growth.  Makes me shiver just thinking about
it, although I don't believe we are confronted by any such thing in the
actual world.