SLSL Intro: poorly written?

[tyro tortoise]

Tim, thanks for the replies. 

I think we are making progress. But if I'm
over-posting or becoming a bore, I'll drop it. 

Nevertheless, as far as I'm concerned those two
sentences remain a mystery to us all. No one here is
willing or able to explain in plain English what they
mean and what they are doing in the Introduction. I'm
sure people will continue to quote them to support
arguments later on and so I was hoping we could get a
better idea of what they actually say. We have not.
You have, like Otto, implied some reference to topics
or themes in Pynchon's fiction. That does not cut 
ice. You mentioned Soap boxing (is soap boxing
compatible with writing well?). Soap boxing might be a
reasonable explanation. Soap boxing may explain how 
theoretical speculation about race and power got into
that paragraph. But what does the "soapboxer" mean by
what he says? 

"It may turn out that racial differences are not as
basic as questions of money and power...us so
relatively poor and powerless." 

I think Cornel West can be an idiot and I don't agree
with a lot of what he says, but race matters. 

I'm bothered by the fact that Pynchon sadwiches  this
"soapboxing" speculation between his admission of
guilt and his apology. Forget the fact that it's an
example of poor writing and consider what he's saying.
 Does he really believe that race differences are not
as basic as questions of money and power? Of course
everybody knows how race has been a useful tool for
dividing people and keeping the working class
relatively poor and powerless. Hell, we don't need
Pynchon to tell us this, it's an obvious fact. But
what he says is that "It may yet turn out that racial
differences are not as basic as questions of money and
power..."...he is speculating about what may yet
happen as if this is some sort of trend or shift he is
taking note of. Dave Monroe suggested the Reagan
Democrats. Are we supposed to guess that this is what
Pynchon is speculating about? Is that what good
writers do, make us guess? 

First off, I think Pynchon's speculations are wrong.
Race matters. However, what I'm disturbed by is the
fact that sandwiched between his admission that he was
carrying the infection of racism and spreading it
unawares in his stories (Lowlands) and his apology is
this specualtion about  race not being as important as

power and money. In that formula, he shifts himself
over with the poor and powerless mitigating if not
absolving himself from his racist sin. It's a dodge!
How else could the author of both Lowlands and TSI
justify packageing these poorly written stories up and
selling them? Surely the author of TSI and the Watts
essay realized that readers could ignore his
Introduction, could read it as fiction, as Tom pulling
our legs, not read it at all

...oh that story is not racist...Tom Pynchon wrote
that story...oh, what he says in the
Introduction...that's just Tom playing the
fool...pulling our legs....it's all fiction.... 

and that students and young people might read Lowlands
and be infected by the racist language in it. 




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