SLSL Intro: "if...I were...him"

[slothenvypride]

That may be true, but then it may not be true.
Tone, yes.  But "overstating" presumes that you know what our author was intending, and in fact you don't have that authority. None of us do.
The bottom line: there is a possibility of persona that cannot be ignored simply because you don't think it is a persona.  And if it is, that opens a whole additional dimension to how one reads this intro.
(By the way, the subtle dig at our resident "on-line journalist" Millison didn't go unnoticed, and only illustrates how incapable you are of conducting a reasonable discussion on TRP without the puerile nonsense.  If the owners decide to kick people off, here's hoping you're the first to go.)
Sep7
 
 MalignD at aol.com wrote:To say that TRP is creating "persona" is, I think, overstating what is going 
on here, making it more interesting and mysterious than it is. He's chosen a 
particular tone for the essay over another or others, no more than you would 
do in choosing one tone in writing to your alumni magazine, another in 
writing condolences to the perhaps bereaved widow of an on-line journalist. 
Read Henry James's introductions for another approach and tone, one Pynchon, 
wisely, chose not to emulate. 




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