How people read the Pyncher (was Re: Charles Hollander's Essay)

[Paul Mackin]

calbert at hslboxmaster.com wrote:

>This should stir up some xit..........
>
Which is just what the p-list needs at the moment. Not.

I should have said that I don't particularly have an alternative 
interpretation. I'm all p-interpretationed out at the moment. Too much 
water under the bridge.

Good reply, Charles. As usual.

P.

>I found the JFk hypothesis less
>convincing than Hollander's "disinherited" thesis as presented in the
>Cornell Alumni Mag article. THe former suffers, in my opinion, from the
>effort to seek a "definitive key" in a work which, taken as a whole, seems
>to assume as a fundamental premise that its is the riddle, not its
>"answer", which defines the reader's experience. I think it is Petillion
>who suggests a connection with an earlier work (Borges, maybe - my notes
>are in the office) where this idea is more explicit, and the resolution is
>nearly identical to that of COL49, to wit, the door is "opened", but we are
>not told what appears inside......I took some flack from legitimate
>scholars on the list for recommending the cornell mag article, but I
>maintain, that as a "catalyst" for a relevant interpretive premise, the
>piece remains one of considerable merit.....
>
>Oh, and Hollander/dudious is, in my personal experience, a kind
>correspondent who seems perfectly willing to have his view challenged and
>superceeded.....I don't say this in contradiction of what Jbor has related
>(Jbor, is, in my view, another of the list's rare resources), but I wanted,
>as an unapologetic COL49 enthusiast to see Hollander credited for his
>contribution to my increased understanding of the novel....
>
>
>love,
>cfa
>
>
>
>
>
>Original Message:
>-----------------
>From: Paul Mackin paul.mackin at verizon.net
>Date: Tue, 08 Oct 2002 08:26:18 -0400
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: How people read the Pyncher (was Re: Charles Hollander's Essay)
>
>
>Yes, well I do think Charles H. has captured the way a significant 
>number of p-readers DO read the novels, essays, and P himself (Pynchon 
>the man in society). Magic eye, double name business and all. I wouldn't 
>have appreciated this before joining up with the p-list some seven years 
>ago.
>
>P.
>
>
>
>Bandwraith at aol.com wrote:
>
>  
>
>>Charles Hollander's essay- Pynchon, JFK and the CIA: Magic
>>Eye Views of The Crying of Lot 49, in Pynchon Notes 40-41
>>(spring-fall 1997), is an amazing synthesis, a fresh 
>>perspective on COL49 and desrves credit as such. 
>>
>>Furthermore the "half-names" and the decoding of
>>their possible significance becomes in itself a 
>>metaphor for the paranoid pov and the need for
>>agents (of all ages!) to seek meaningful order in 
>>otherwise random assemblages of data. Wonderful.
>>
>>It is an "out of the box" interpretation that Oedipa 
>>within the fabric of the novel cannot see, but the reader, 
>>with Hollander's assistance, is now made aware. But it 
>>will, and therein the art of the author, always remain a 
>>probability rather than a certainty, nor conversely, will it's
>>probability ever be reduced to zero.
>>
>>That's just the nature of the world we share.
>>Uncertainty, except for death and taxes, to
>>turn a common phrase, are unavoidable.
>>
>>regards
>>
>>--------------------------------
>>
>>"At Penn's Ascension of the Delaware,
>>Savages from the banks covertly stare,
>>As at the Advent of some puissant Prince,
>>Before whom, Chaos reign'd, and Order since..."
>>
>>[Tox, of course, opening lines of Pennsylvaniad, Book One]
>>
>> 
>>
>>    
>>
>
>
>
>
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