Quail: "You won't even simply *give up* when asked. [...] stop lecturing me"

[barbara100 at jps.net]

Malign,
Like I said: unimaginative crap!

Quail,
I have to take issue with your subject line here.  It's very whiney of you
for one.  You *do* sound rather 'limp' when you say 'stop lecturing me.'
I'm sorry, but it's my 'opinion' of you.  We're all entitled.  I'm also
sorry I sound holier than thou to you, but that's really for you to deal
with.  I say what I want to say, and I say what I feel. You shouldn't tell
me to stop.  I enjoyed writing that post last night.  It was about Pynchon
and America, and it wasn't just for you!   have no right to tell me to stop!
Besides, if you don't want to talk to me anymore, you should let your
actions/inactions speak for you. I'll get the hint sooner or later.
And one more thing--for the record--I don't think you really want me to
stop. You keep saying it--till you're blue in the face too--but the blue in
your face kinda shows me it's not true.

Barbara

PS:
"If you were in control of things right now, I would
be mortally afraid."

I wouldn't dream of it.  I'd never want to be in control, so don't you worry
yourself over it.

"Can you see, perhaps, why then it
rankles a bit the way you use him constantly as a guide to all
situations?"

If I rankle you that much I think that's more of a reflection on the way you
feel about yourself  than the way I feel about you.  Some of you don't say
very nice things to me either, but you don't see me crying 'stop it!'
And  I think it's unfair to diminish me because I've only read GR (and COL
49 back in college)  I'll read more one day.  For now, though, GR is a good
guide.  I've heard many say it's Pynchon's best work.  The cover of mine
says, "The most important work of fiction yet produced by any living
writer."  I think I'm doing just fine with GR. A stranger on the train today
noticed me reading today and said he had to read it four times. I truly
believe the themes in GR are timeless and universal. I won't stop using it
as my guide.  You have no right to ask me to stop that either. It's relevant

to me today.






----- Original Message -----
From: <MalignD at aol.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2001 3:54 PM
Subject: Re: Quail: "You won't even simply *give up* when asked. [...] stop
lecturing me"


>
> The Millison:
>
> <<so it comes as no suprise that readers like Quail have got to keep
Pynchon
> up there on the bookshelf and deny his work is anything but "fiction",
> unwilling to admit that Pynchon might really mean it when he talks about
the
> "the criminally insane who have enjoyed power  since 1945".>>
>
> This is a befuddling sentence.
>
> Millison says that--
>
> [they?]'re "unwilling to admit that Pynchon might really mean it ..."
>
> --when earlier he said, "They miss Pynchon's irony ..."
>
> It would be one or the other, would it not?  Is he ironic or does he
really
> mean it?
>
> And--that the people who have "enjoyed power since 1945" are "criminally
> insane" is hysterical progaganda, out of the pen of Pynchon or not.
>