SLSL Intro "Almost But Not Quite Me ..."

[MalignD at aol.com]

Rob Jackson writes:

<<Pynchon is discussing 'TSI' and the "old Baedeker trick again" of shifting 
his own Long Island "hometown ... landscape and the experiences I grew up 
with" to the Berkshires (20-21). In fact, what he's overtly saying he's not 
doing, and what McHoul & Wills seem to be trying to say he is doing, is 
adopting this "strategy of transfer" in the 'Intro'. It's quite a bizarre 
tactic on the critics' part, shamelessly ignoring the semantic thrust and 
context of Pynchon's commentary. Of course, in the context of what he means 
by the phrase, Pynchon's personal recounts and reminiscences in the 'Intro' 
don't deliberately displace his own experiences at all. These are 
acknowledged precisely for what they are.>>

And he is correct, but citing not the only unfortunate tactic in this hapless 
essay, which proceeds in no small part by similarly using a term in one 
context, then reusing it in another, in order to make points that are, to be 
kind, dubious.

The use of the word "transfer" begins with one of the writers reminiscing 
about decals--e.g., pictures from a comic strip--that came in packs of gum 
and which could be transferred onto the skin, about which he says "Allow to 
dry just enough--not too much--and peel it away.  To leave behind a perfect 
trace.  This was not a reproduction, a *mere* tracing from a comic, it was 
*the* picture text," this idea of "perfect transfer" important to the point 
he attempts to make in what follows, in a context not remotely applicable.  
(It is worth noting that, even on its own terms, his description is entirely 
false; such decals were precisely copies of something else and, as is known 
to anyone old enough to have familiarity with such decals, a "perfect" 
transfer was, if not impossible, all but.)

The writers then take this idea of "transfer" and compare it to copying LPs 
onto cassette tape, the analaog loss of quality in the copy process referred 
to by the writers as "drop out."  This term is then used to make an otherwise 
nonexistent connection to Pynchon referring to people in the 50s and 60s 
"dropping out."

Et cetera.