better version of Playboy Japan interview with TRP

[barbara100 at jps.net]

Jobr:
<The attitude seems to be that unless you concur with *Doug's* ridiculous
<politics then you have no right to be reading Pynchon's works.

That's as ridiculous as when you tried to say Pynchon supports this War on
Terrorism based on text from Gravity's Rainbow!  And I said it then
too--Nobody's telling anybody not to read Pynchon.  Read till you're "blue
in the face"!  I've always said.  It just seems kinda dumb to me to go
arguing with him like you do right here on his own site. It's kinda like
going to church and picking a fight with the priest about transubstantiation
while you're taking his communion. At least have respect while you're eating
it. Jeeze!
And some of you all have been downright MEAN to him...banal, Alzheimer's,
simple-minded, should've stayed in hiding.  I can't believe you!  In honor
of our dear Master Pynchon, FUCK YOU!
(There, I feel better now...)

Barbara


----- Original Message -----
From: jbor <jbor at bigpond.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2002 4:32 PM
Subject: Re: better version of Playboy Japan interview with TRP


> Book blurbs for (mainly) personal friends, two-three letters to the
editor,
> a telephone call made to CNN, non-fiction articles, a book review or two,
> and an exchange by fax of questions and answers for a biography are very
> different - in purpose, content, and context - from an actual current
> affairs media interview instigated by a journalist. If the interview is
> authentic, and I'm still very dubious about that, then it's a first. But
I'd
> imagine it would be pretty simple to verify whether or not he made the
> comments (and authorised their publication in Japanese _Playboy_), and I
> must admit it does surprise me that no-one has bothered to check the
source,
> or assess the significance of the medium, what with so much consternation
> over the validity of the "non-alternative" media here in recent months.
>
> But, as I said, it's just a general impression of the "argument" I get
from
> the various digs coming from Doug and some of his cronies in recent days.
> Doug's comment: "What I continue to find fascinating is how people who
hold
> political views that appear to differ so with those that undergird
Pynchon's
> work still manage to to enjoy his fiction." Followed up by Barbara's
> harangue: "you might ask yourselves what it is you're doing here with such
> little respect" for Pynchon, and Dave Monroe's snide assertion that "some
> here are hearing something they didn't want to hear".
>
> The attitude seems to be that unless you concur with *Doug's* ridiculous
> politics then you have no right to be reading Pynchon's works.
>
> best
>
>
>
> on 9/1/02 11:06 AM, Doug Millison at millison at online-journalist.com wrote:
>
> > Not the argument I made, or intended, of course, not even close.
> >
> > Do you really feel that somebody is trying to keep you from reading
Pynchon?
> > Reality check:  How could "they" manage to stop you?
> >
> > When did Pynchon's "deliberate forty year silence" take place?  Before
or
> > after he called CNN in 1997? (Oops, what about those essays, book
> > introductions, support quotes, letters to the editor, etc.)  Or would
the
> > pivotal date be when David Hadju interviewed him for the Farina book?
> >
> > Anyway, Happy New Year to you, too, "jbor" -- all the best.  I hope you
get
> > everything you want in 2002, all the good stuff.
> >
> > -Doug
> >
> >
> >
> > "jbor"
> > I think the argument goes something like this, Otto: Now that Pynchon
has
> > finally broken a deliberate forty year silence by speaking out - so
> > comprehensively and thoughtfully - in this, his first official press
> > interview, strategically vouchsafed to a journalist from that forefront
> > progressive, left-leaning, anti-corporate, anti-global capital,
humanitarian
> > organisation, Hef's Playboycorp empire, anyone who ISN'T a card-carrying
> > George Bush Jnr-hater and anti-US propagandist should NOT, under ANY
> > circumstances, be permitted to discuss or even to read Pynchon's work.
> >
> >
> >
> > Doug Millison - Writer/Editor/Web Editorial Consultant
> > millison at online-journalist.com
> > www.Online-Journalist.com
>