pynchon-l-digest V2 #2215

[Doug Millison]

Barbara,
In my experience, PR folks don't have much more backbone when dealing with
clients than fq or Terrance or Big Bird have with jaybore, at least not
until they get to the bottom of the barrel and can't come up with any new
ways to spin what they're learning into what the client wants to hear and
the monthly retainer's at stake, so maybe you're right, maybe this will
create a channel for Bush's handlers to face reality.  Then they can feed
it to the boss along with his Quaaludes, or whatever it is they're giving
him to keep him from popping a neck vein when the reporters ask the tough
questions.

Eulenspiegel,
Yes, I am convinced that Pynchon has personal experience with LSD, and I
believe Eisner when he tells me the Pynchon quote about MDMA is authentic.
P knows enough about LSD, too, to discuss the downside -- the way the CIA
used it to torture some pour souls as They researched how to use it as a
weapon (the source for Slothrop's trip down the toilet and not fq's
wish-fulfillment fantasy of anal rape by a big scary black dude), and his
hints that the government used drugs to derail the 60s revolution.  You've
probably already read Huston Smith's recent book, _Cleansing the Doors of
Perception_, his collected essays about entheogens.  Watch for
_Psychoactive Sacramentals_,  too, due out this month, edited by Tom
Roberts, a project of the Council on Spritual Practices.  Pynchon also
knows, as many of the 60s gurus learned, that you don't need LSD to get to
God, that's why he talks about the Hindoos and Quakers in M&D.  Sit still,
be quiet, wait for God.  But P knows that in the right circumstances, LSD
is God, too, yes you are certainly right about that.

-Doug