just a bit more re Playboy Japan interview

[The Great Quail]

>you're still out there with "circumstantial" evidence and
>your romantic myth of Pynchon's "forty-year silence."

While I agree that the idea itself is romantic, I think you are 
stretching it by calling it a myth. Though Pynchon is not as silent 
as one may think -- given his few articles, letters, and endorsements 
-- he is still far, far more quiet about his own works, his chosen 
field, and events in general than most authors with a comparable 
profile. So yes, an interview in Playboy, no matter how small, would 
be a Pynchon "event."

>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.

That is true; though it didn't stop you from immediately stretching 
it thinly across the head of your own never-ending drum, did it?

>I've also suggested that if it is Pynchon, his dig at Bush and critique of
>the war

I would say he had more to say about our view of bin Laden than an 
actual full-blown critique of the war, no? It's not like he came 
right out anywhere and said, "This war is bad and should end and 
here's what we should do instead..."

For that matter, hell, *I* have a "critique of the war," and you have 
been labelling me among the hawks and warmongers!

I am not saying by any means that Pynchon supported the war -- he 
didn't. But neither did he offer the critique that your fantasies 
allow. And frankly speaking, some of what he did say -- about the 
non-existence of bin Laden -- I only hope is translation distortion, 
because it sounds paranoid and silly. Certainly not the Pynchon I am 
used to reading.

>are worth noting in the current militaristic climate that seems to
>have overwhelmed most Americans, that this skepticism of yet another
>American holy war

This is a holy war? I was unaware....? It seemed politically and 
socially motivated to me.

>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.

The thing is, Doug, no one here has actually said that Pynchon is a 
supporter of US militarism and war profits for multinational 
corporations, which would be asinine to imply! It is you, Doug, who 
force the connection, that to support this war, even to support it 
with criticism, is immediately tantamount to being a supporter of US 
militarism and war profits for multinational corporations, as if 
there were no other dimensions to this very complex problem.

You cobble a warped reality into being with your crippled language, 
and then you fit us to it as if you had uttered the Logos.

>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!

Well, I admire that also. It's keeping an open mind while still 
having convictions. I only wish that sometime you felt the "need to 
change" your opinions.

>Don't worry -- I won't let your harsh words turn me against you, "jbor" --

Oh, for Pete's sake, Doug, drop the childish quotes. At the very 
least, it makes you look even more like a ninny.

>I suspect you're a lonely soul, and I'm sending lots of good thoughts in
>your direction.

Doug Tactic #7: Imply that his opponent has some sort of bad personal 
life, and that his only way of venting this frustration is to abuse 
the List. Note the faux-pious religious angle, further enshrining 
himself behind a fortress of mock politeness and false caring.

>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?

Doug Tactic #2: Lying through his teeth about his intentions. Usually 
done to bolster his mask of false politeness.

--Quail
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