please, no more hate mail on Pynchon-L

[pynchonoid]

If by Netiquette you mean, let's stay on topic,  avoid
the personal insults, and in the present circumstance
especially, keep violent fantasies about one another
out of the P-list discussion, I'm all for it -- that's
what I asked for back in '97, a few of you may recall,
back when MalignD appeared in JS's pungent wake, to
cheer on Mittelwerke's vile spew. I did, after all,
organize the SLSL reading a few folks are hot for now,
took an active role in both M&D readings the Vineland
reading, and the GR reading.  My primary purpose here,
as some of you know, is to glean any Pynchon-related
news or bibliographic tid-bits for the editors of
Pynchon Notes who don't have the time to wade through
the posts here. 

If a some P-listers want to indulge in violent sexual
fantasies of rape, torture, homicide, etc., perhaps
they could move into meta-mode and do that within the
framework of a discussion about that sort of material
as it appears in Pynchon's work, instead of making
such fantasies up and using them to club others  --
or, they could  share their fantasies about each other
offlist. I've fallen for my share of flamebait, and
offered my own (as has every longtime subscriber
here), but I've never approached the P-list as an
XXX-rated porno, S/M chat room. 

I agree with David, I'd like to be able to enjoy
reading everybody's comments. I've filtered that
handful of people who treat the P-list as their
personal cesspool (fortunately, they never post
anything that warrants passing along to Pynchon
Notes), but the egregious stuff gets around despite
that precaution. It came too close to home this time,
for me.  How many of you guys have actually met
Terrance, or have talked with him on the phone?

I expect even Keith knows that sometimes, even the
strongest of us may need help to keep the abusers at
bay. Not every kid manages to make it out of the
clutches of an alcoholic parent or wife-beater,  or
escapes that fundamentalist cult alone, without help
-- not even, sometimes, in ripe young middle age, in
my experience.

Terrance is of course free to do whatever he wants to
do, but last time I checked he is not free to
physcially threaten me, or harass me with hatemail,
not even here in the land of the free and home of the
brave. (He's left the P-list in a huff so many times,
and has returned under so many names, it's difficult
to take him seriously this time, anyway.) 

Please forgive the personal anecdote and earnest tone
if it offends (if you've met me in person, you know
that's how I really am, and clueless at times, too),
but a group of us, P-listers all (except for my lovely
wife) sat around a table in New York at the beginning
of this year, enjoying food and drink and
conversation, and, inevitably I suppose, we wound up
talking about 9-11. (Terrance was invited, but
apparently chose not to come; Quail, too, and he sent
his regrets later.)  I had heard my brother and his
family and friends talk about living through that day
in Manhattan, but the conversation took on special
significance for me with the NYPListas.  We talked a
lot about Pynchon _and_ we talked about our lives,
with respect and consideration and affection for one
another. That was good.

I'm not sure what we would have done if somebody had
jumped up on the table and started pissing; what works
in literature isn't always quite so funny in real
life.  Personally, I'm glad we didn't choose to meet
at a place like the "Fuck You" exhibition Keith, the
P-list's resident gonzo pandit, recommends, playfully
I suppose.

-Doug




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