pynchon-l-digest V2 #2593

[Doug Millison]

Well, here's the kiss of death for that idea.


fqmorris at hotmail.com:
>Subject: Re: Next ?
>
>I would love to read _Moby Dick_ with this group.


I've said just about all I have to say re Pynchon's Washington, but I must
add, that jbor's argument depends on arbitrarily assigning one  or two
unidentified lines of dialogue to this or another character, in a scene
that Pynchon seems to have set up in a way that makes it impossible to do
so with any certainty -- well, that's certainly an interesting way to read
the text, especially coming from somebody who has been so fierce in
insisting that only what is specifically in the text might have meaning in
such a discussion. But that's OK, as an old journo once told me, "Never let
the facts get in the way of the story."  And it is almost always
interesting to see where the irresistable need to disagree  with something
I've posted might lead.

I went to the Arizona State Fair once when I was in high school, and in the
side show I watched a contortionist work, an older guy (about my age now,
in fact, 50 or so) -- about the time he got himself all twisted up like a
pretzel he looked right out into the audience, made eye contact with one
after another person, and said, in a world-weary tone of voice, "It's a
hell of a way to make a living, ain't it?"