SLSL Intro, ...I swear I had the strange ESP knowledge...

[Mutualcode at aol.com]

Does Pynchon really believe in ESP?

Almost enough for this side of the aisle to rest our case, non? 
But there are other examples, which, I dare say, The Tories 
need to explain, for example:

    Modern readers will be... (p.11)

Modern? Well, I guess if he'd said "Postmodern readers" it
would have been too much, but he could have said "Today's
readers" or some other phrase. So much for the Mod Squad.

Even more excruciating:

    It is simply wrong to begin with a theme, symbol or
    other abstract unifying agent, and then try to force
    characters and events to conform to it. (p. 12)

Rilly? Either he's got dementia or he's mocking the basis of all
his "real" novels (I think Vineland is a "real" spoof, a deliberate
fake book, and just wonderful...), and parodying, I'd imagine, 
some of his most envious and hateful critics, who just couldn't
get past the beginning of GR and "simply" the entire basis of 
Lot 49.

Forcing "characters and events to conform," especially to the
needs of "abstract unifying agent(s)" might be the starting
point for an analysis of Pynchon's work.

respectfully