NP no facts only interpretations

jbor jbor at bigpond.com
Fri May 18 18:44:37 CDT 2001


                   
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>From: Doug Millison <DMillison at ftmg.net>
>

> Sounds like religious belief to me, accepting dogma as truth and blindly
> refusing to debate it.

Say what? I'm up for it. You're the one who constantly tries to foreclose
discussion with the ad hominem.

> I think it's obvious where Pynchon comes down on that
> particular practice.

The New Turkic Alphabet episode in _GR_ discloses something of Pynchon's
view on the way that language colonises a culture. Why, lookee here:

    ... And there is a strong religious angle in all this. Using a non-
    Arabic alphabet is felt to be a sin against God -- most of the Turkic
    peoples are, after all, Islamic, and the Arabic script is the script
    of Islam, it is the script in which the words of Allah came down on
    the Night of Power, the script of the Koran --
      Of the *what?* Does Tchitcherine know what he's doing with this
    forgery of his? It is more than blasphemy, it is an invitation to holy
    war. ... [354.16]

> Bauerlein has obviously had more than a view
> conversations with people who argue like "jbor".

I wonder what "truths" Bauerstein used in order to make those sweeping
generalisations about the procedures by which academic tenure is granted in
American universities.

best



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