that quote on MDMA

[Doug Millison]

Actually, I don't think the quote attributed to Pynchon regarding MDMA
should be considered in quite the same category as the Playboy Japan
interview.  The MDMA quote originally appeared in a book that doesn't have,
to my way of thinking, quite the same status as a big, slick, monthly
magazine like Playboy Japan, and the MDMA quote wasn't presented in the
same sort of interview context/format as the "talk by Thomas Pynchon"
(that's the byline at the top of the article; the Japanese reporter's name
comes at the end of the text) in Playboy Japan.  Bruce Eisner's book was
published by a small, indepedent press, and for many years enjoyed an
audience that was very much underground -- quite unlike Playboy Japan.

As you may recall, each time that this quote has surfaced on Pynchon-L,
I've made efforts to find out more about it -- first by talking with my
friend Doug Rushkoff when he used the quote in one of his books, and later
by contacting Eisner himself and receiving Eisner's assurance that the
quote was authentic and actually from Pynchon (although Eisner declined to
provide more details about it -- and if you're interested, you can follow
up with him yourself). (And, while I don't mean to toot my own horn here,
this is an example of the sort of contribution I'm glad I've been able to
make in this forum from time to time over the years.)

I agree that P's statements about marijuana, MDMA, his references to LSD in
his novels, would seem to indicate that he has direct, personal experience
of those substances, but I also have to agree with Terrance when he points
to the possibility that P's just taking an element of the culture around
him and bringing his formidable artistic powers to bear on it.  I have no
problem with dealing with the uncertainty, of not knowing if it's the one
or the other.   (If I ever have the opportunity to smoke a joint with Mr.
Pynchon, I can't imagine saying no, however. )

Likewise, with the Playboy Japan interview.  I've seen it in the magazine,
I've provided a translation to you all (courtesy of my friend Naoki), I've
mailed copies to some of you, I've sent the issue on to John Krafft (who
told me about the interview in the first place), and now I'm happy to wait
for more information to emerge about it, no problem being in that sort of
limbo, is it authentic or not or what is it?

I think you've gone a bit overboard in characterizing what I've actually
written about the interview, and how I've worked these
comments-attributed-to-Pynchon into my ongoing analysis of the political
beliefs that we might ascertain from his writings and statements, in his
fiction and elsewhere, but it's hardly worth the effort to go back and try
to correct you in the details.  It's no big deal, after all. You can -- and
have done -- make what you want of Pynchon's politics based on his words,
and of course you have every right to do so.  Anybody who's interested can
go back and look at what we've each actually written in this thread, of
course, and see for themselves who's accurately characterizing or
distorting.

Cordially,
Doug