just a bit more re Playboy Japan interview

[Doug Millison]

"jbor"
"I made no offer to seek out the authenticity of the "interview"

You haven't done anything to support your knee-jerk assumption that it's a
hoax, either -- you're still out there with "circumstantial" evidence and
your romantic myth of Pynchon's "forty-year silence."  What was that
circumstantial evidence again?  It was so lightweight it seems to have
evaporated.

Despite your continued efforts to rewrite what I've actually written, my
position has been, keep an open mind until the Playboy Japan interview is
demonstrated authentic or not.

I've also suggested that if it is Pynchon, his dig at Bush and critique of
the war are worth noting in the current militaristic climate that seems to
have overwhelmed most Americans, that this skepticism of yet another
American holy war is of a piece with what we read in his novels, essays,
book support quotes, etc., and that the comments might make some of the
Pynchon-L supporters of Bush's war uncomfortable. Others have used the
interview to support their own interpretations of Pynchon, so that seems to
be OK to do, or is it just not OK if I do it?  I mean, you've been arguing
for months now that Pynchon is a supporter of Bush's war on Afghanistan
(one of the funniest assertions I've seen yet in 5 years on Pynchon-L --
you and Mackin with the jokes!),  obviously you feel it's OK to use
Pynchon's words to support your political agenda, so I guess I'm a little
confused about why you're so hard on people who don't read Pynchon as a
supporter of US militarism and war profits for multinational corporations.

Of course you're free to interpret the remarks in the Playboy Japan
interview any way that you choose, and I know you will -- one of the things
I like best about you is the tenacity with which you hold your opinion,
until you see a need to change them, and then I admire how quickly you're
able to adopt a position you formerly opposed. Such agility!

Don't worry -- I won't let your harsh words turn me against you, "jbor" --
I suspect you're a lonely soul, and I'm sending lots of good thoughts in
your direction.  This is going to be a turn-around year for us all, I
believe -- I mean, look at you, with that article coming up in Pynchon
Notes (where you'll finally be published alongside Charles Hollander and
the rest of the real Pynchon scholars), things are looking good for you,
and nobody's happier for you than I am.  You go, girl! We have so much to
be thankful for in 2002 already, don't you think?