Stay Focused

[Cat Hamilton]

I read the story and I was also surprised not to have seen mention of it 
onlist.  It was by Tom O'Brien.  It was from the New Yorker.  Can't remember 
the name of it.  I stole it from a doctor's office actually.  I thought it 
was cute but fluff.  For one thing it was too drawn out, for another it was 
hard to believe the protagonist's trophy girlfriend would have been taken in 
by it as long as she was. "Unpleasant" is a good word for it.  I expected so 
much more...

--Cat


>From: Toby G Levy <tobylevy at juno.com>
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Stay Focused
>Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 23:27:37 EDT
>
>Once upon a time this list was possessed by a demon who felt that his
>association with the Great Man was more important than anything the Great
>Man had written and that the entire list should revolve around this
>association. Dare I mention the name of this demon?  No, I dare not, but
>his initials were J.S.
>
>Nowadays we have a new set of characters and I am glad to say that I have
>no question of their sincerity in their interest in the writings of
>Thomas Pynchon.  Why they all cannot accept their diversity, end all the
>personal attacks on each other, and limit the discussion to the works of
>Pynchon is beyond my comprehension.
>
>In the past there have been many posters to the list who did not like the
>works of Pynchon at all, but limited their posts to quite legitimate
>criticism.
>
>I guess what mystifies me the most is how people can quite sincerely
>believe that Pynchon's perspective is not from the far left side of the
>political spectrum.  Not only is there an unlimited amount of evidence in
>the texts themselves, but most if not all of his blurbs are for books by
>lefties and all of his known friends from college days were lefties.
>Agree or disagree with him, there is an awful lot of populism and anarchy
>in his books.
>
>Heres a new topic:  I don't recall anyone mentioning the short story in
>the New Yorker in late August or early September in which the narrator
>pretends to be a reclusive author that is quite clearly supposed to be
>Pynchon.  It was a strange and unpleasant story.  Did anyone else read
>it, and if so, what did you think about it.
>
>Toby
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