The P-List

[Tim Strzechowski]

Because, as you probably know, there has been a faction against Millison that's gone on now for several years. It's usually a group of listers (jbor, malignd, fqmorris, s~Z, terrance/publicdomain, several others) who take exception to any sundry things that Doug posts, whether it be opinions, NP posts, or the way he wipes his ass. Then the flaming begins, which typically involves everyone ganging up on him because one voice against many can sound amusingly panicked, I suppose. At its more absurd turns, the faction accuses Doug of being multiple personalities (like Barbara). On occasion a few of us pipe in with support, but that gets quickly mowed down because much of the argumentation against Millison support is based on deliberate misinterpretation, flamebaiting, and sophomoric insult (cf. anything fqmorris EVER posts). Publicdomain is nothing more than terrance, an otherwise intelligent lister who's been part of the list for some time, seems quite well-read, but suffers from long bouts of delusions of grandeur hidden behind a string of anonylous screen names (he was a woodjim something or other a year and half back, as I recall). 

Part of the problem is that this list is an unmoderated forum.  The Dickns-L and Milton-L listserves are well-moderated discussion forums in which drivel like the baiting is weeded out.  Of course (and I somewhat agree here), part of the charm of the Pynchon-L listserve its its decidedly fucked-up nature.  Let's face it, many of us take a perverse voyeuristic pleasure in watching (and participating in) the extracurricular activities. 

I've found that digressions like these past few days happen most often when the literary discussion falls short of being sustained well.  A few good zingers will fly back and forth, fqmorris will tell people how much they do/do not contribute to discussions, terrance will begin quoting Melville and Joyce, Doug will be insulted a la playground bully style, and life will resume its wayward spin.

Tim


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: KXX4493553 at aol.com 
  To: keithsz at concentric.net ; pynchon-l at waste.org 
  Sent: Sunday, June 23, 2002 2:15 PM
  Subject: Re: ALL ABOUT BRAHMAN


  Who is it? Does it matter? Okay, sometimes Doug is posting too many, but is that a reason for this new intrigue against him? What hinders you to go on with the M & D-discussion f. e? Mailing-lists are a good opportunity for people who hide behind anonymity. But it's also a good opporunity to destroy a mailing-list. 



  Kurt-Werner Poertner. 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20020623/32eefb18/attachment.html>