On Another Day In P-list History

[s~Z]

Date: Wed, 07 May 1997 10:13:23 -0500
To: pynchon-l@[omitted]
From: Jules Siegel <jsiegel@[omitted]>
Subject: Re: The Origin of Cinco de Mayo


At 09:36 AM 05/7/97 -0400, Charles Alan Joyce <caj3+ at pitt.edu> wrote
privately:

>I began to realize that very few of [mittelwerk's] his postings should be
taken at face value. There are no sacred cows for the man, and to be honest,
I'm really thankful for that sort of presence on the list.

I don't agree. Even implied racist insults are beyond the pale. Smell too
much like Hitler. It takes a really gifted satirist to bring this stuff off,
if at all. I don't find him that gifted.

>Anyway, by all accounts, he's quite pleasant in person.

It doesn't apply. If he did this in person, he might get himself killed in
Mexico and no one would prosecute his murderer.

>I think your return to pynchon-l was fucked from the start because you
didn't make the first "Lineland" announcement yourself --

I'm not sure about that. I didn't know too much about it. I thought Dale was
going to make a formal announcement of the book's forthcoming publication
simultaneously with the advisory to the people whose postings and/or names
did appear in the book. I subscribed when he mentioned something in an
e-mail about the reaction and I figured I better see for myself.

>(saying "I'm sorry for any hurt feelings" is just NOT going to go over well
with this pack of bitter paranoiacs)...

Anything would have set off the same reaction.

>anyway, congratulations on taking most of it in stride and sticking around.

Thank you.

>Any plans to get a copy of Mason & Dixon and join in the group reading?

None.

>That'd show 'em.

It would just cause more paranoid acting out, I think. I don't want to show
them anything.

At 10:23 AM 05/7/97 +0000, "Charles F. Albert" <calbert@[omitted]> wrote
privately:

>Didn't we all go through this once before with the Human Canoe?

I don't know anything about the Human Canoe.

>Please elaborate on why this would be offensive. My interpretation leaves
no room for insult, unless you insist that political repression does not,
and has not, occurred in your adopted homeland. Certainly nothing in the
statement slurs Mexicans.

Cinco de Mayo is probably Mexico's most universally revered and celebrated
historical date. Benito Juarez, who kicked the French forces out of Mexico,
was a Zapotec. He occupies a place in Mexican history almost exactly
equivalent to Abraham Lincoln. Mentioning feces in the same paragraph or
sentence as Cinco de Mayo is rather insulting, at best. Making a
scatological joke about Cinco de Mayo insults the memory of Benito Juarez
and all Mexicans, most of whom are mestizos.

>Oh, I forgot - are you still insisting on posting everything to the list?

Not everything, just anything I feel others should see.

I'm a little lost here. I don't see what any of this has to do with
political repression and I don't understand why I've just received two
messages from you on the same subject.


Date: Thu, 8 May 1997 14:02:13 -0400 (EDT)
From: Mittelwerk@[omitted]
To: pynchon-l@[omitted]
Subject: Some of my best friends are exploited surplus labor pools. Really.


I don't know about you,

but I find it extremely, extremely ironic that the one-time editor of the
notorious fascist-weekly Der Sturmer would bandy about the H-word so
frivolously.  Those who live in glass huts should not be so quick to fling
Corona empties at Club Med patrons, pal--because we stipend your fucking
existence, slimy ex-pat neo-colonialist-type grimly chewing on a
re-sentiment
quesadilla.

And as for my alleged anti-Mexicanism, I'll have you know that my ancestors
in fact settled that glorious land.  My great-great uncle, Herschele of
Oaxaca, was in fact instrumental in the invention of the Mexican Submarine,
contibuting various Flotation strategies, until the device could support the
displacement-factor of an average, adult Mexican male.

This cultural inheritance has not been lost on me:  recently I amended my
hairstyle to reflect my love for Queotzicotl, the traditional Aztec
war-god--an immense bird-of-prey roughly the size of a Winnebago.  Shaved on
the sides and long in back, my new haircut, accentuating my heavily-muscled,
4-foot, 2-inch physique, fills me with a sense of profound respect for my
vanquished ancestors and their sacred, warrior past....