pynchon-l-digest V2 #2199

[Doug Millison]

At 4:56 PM +0000 11/1/01, Thomas Eckhardt wrote:
>Have you ever thought about why you have such an effect
>upon people?

You might have a point, Thomas, except that I have had and continue to have
cordial relations with a lot of P-listers, way more in fact than the very
small handful who have consistently attacked what I write: "Robert
Jackson", Quail, "Morris", JS, Mackin, kai. (I ignore the misanthropic
trolls like Malign and  Wiener who attack anything and everything on
Pynchon-L, and the host of anonymous emailers who appear like clockwork to
support one or more of the dogpack.)  Pynchon-L had more than 400
subscribers last time I checked.  I hear from dozens of you offlist, talk
with some of you on the phone, exchange books and articles by mail, and
quite a few more than that vile handful have even taken my side against the
dogpack.  You don't like my attitude, but you like Malign's and "Robert
Jackson's" and Quail's.  Other people -- quite a few others, feel
differently. I guess there's no accounting for taste.  So, yes, I have
thought about it, and I've decided that this very small group of people
just don't like my attitude and will probably continue to give me hell for
it.  But in the final analysis what they think of me is none of my
business.  I will defend the points I make when I feel like it, and when
the insults grow wearying I may talk back. I expect I will also continue to
object to the really egregious stuff, like "Robert Jackson's" hounding of
Charles Hollander and Terrance (yes I know they are buddies now but it
wasn't always so) and his anti-Semitic attack on Derek.  And when the
neoconservative political bs gets too deep, I'm quite likely to balance it
out with some Pynchon-style progressive, anti-War commentary.  Thanks for
your kind attention to my posts.

Cordially,
Doug