NP Elementary (school), Watson

[jbor]

It's a fascinating phenomenon, but basically pretty sad. It's actually all
about "control" - even when it's parading as anarchy - and it's anathema to
Pynchon's work. 

There's a small crop of long-time listers who post using multiple
pseudonyms, partly in order to upset discussions they don't like or to deter
new subscribers who they suspect hold alternative points of view to their
own. Sometimes the anonymous name or identity change is benign, and
sometimes it's clever and funny, but sometimes the pseudonym contributes
unintelligible or half-intelligible posts in order to abort a discussion.
Other times they'll invent a new persona to try and get a thread going: "Hi,
I'm Kyle Winkler and I want to talk about .... ", usually something
unrelated and superficial, but sometimes it's something which is potentially
quite interesting or fun. Trouble is, when the pseudonymous identity fools a
couple of real people into engaging with it and then can't go on with it the
discussion quickly collapses. People soon get jack of that.

There are a few who pop up every now and then to decry the subject or
quality of the discussion, again, because they don't agree with what's being
discussed or they haven't got any substantive rebuttal. These same people
will vehemently support the NP "political" discussions, but only as long as
it's *their* political opinions which are being voiced.

But it's the offlist intimidation tactics which are the most puerile and
destructive. Most recently we've had "Jerky" sending abusive and
intimidating messages offlist to new subscribers, and I recall "Kyle
Winkler" trying to start up an on-list flame war by baiting another poster
offlist. When I first posted to the list a few years back (I'd been lurking
for a couple of months so I had a fair idea of what was what) Doug sent me a
series of off-list posts asking what my intentions were and instructing me
in no uncertain terms which posters I should not respond to. When I replied
to him politely that I was big enough to make up my own mind thanks very
much he told me rather brusquely to piss off to a chat-room. I know other
people have had the same and similar experiences with him. In the past this
sort of tactic has been an on-list one also - "Peter Redzinger" and
"slothrop666" are two troll-names which spring to mind, but there have been
many more, and not all of them Doug.

Terrance used to be among the clique of course, and he was obviously coached
in using similar sorts of tactics, but it's obvious that they regard him as
a quisling now. I remember getting a couple of offlist queries from his
"Jane Suete" persona which I took time to respond to thoughtfully and
honestly, and then ... nothing.  Before "her" true identity was uncovered it
was definitely an attempted disguise on his part, nothing transparent about
it at all. I doubt that he's Monica - though Weaver's paranoia seems
well-reseached - but Terrance as "public domain" is still throwing his
accusations and insults around. He's all bitter and twisted but, as far as I
can recall, he is yet to make a coherent or substantiated point about
Pynchon's work even though the list is about 200 gazillion words in the hole
with him. Perhaps he has, I don't bother to try and make sense of what he
posts any more.

Basically it means that the delete button does get a pretty good workout,
and that interesting discussions, whether about Pynchontext, or NP topics
(politics, literature, film etc) are few and far between, and can't be
sustained for long. Having said that, there are still many good people on
the list too, and lots of interesting information and ideas and links get
posted. Overall, though, it's the tactics of a few selfish and
self-opinionated people which have served to decimate the list. I know of
quite a few posters who have been driven away because of the shenanigans,
the constant baiting and flame-wars, the offlist bullshit, the hijacking,
the ad hominem. Another problem is that the trolling has been so endemic for
so long that when legitimate new subscribers do come along they're either
ignored, like the fellow who posted about McLuhan recently, or accused of
being Doug. It isn't just Doug, of course, it's a group of about two or
three. I think they think of themselves as a "Counterforce" or "We-system"
but, in reality, they're just "naughty little boys".

I thought the idea was to attract new subscribers and, correspondingly, new
readers of Pynchon's work, not to deter them. Perhaps what's needed is a
warning on the Pynchon-L welcome page. Murthy? "Oxymoron"?

best