Yet Another Plea to Stay Pynchon-Focused

[davemarc]

From: Eddie Bettano <eddiebettano at yahoo.com>
> Oh well, maybe if we talk about something we know
> about, like Pynchon maybe, we might save the list from
> this crap.

From: <barbara100 at jps.net>
> How can you be saying that? Your political shit is littered all over this
> list.

From: Otto <ottosell at yahoo.de>
> I don't understand your complaint here, since you feel free to post &
answer
> to every political topic you like.

Would more people "get it" if the suggestion came from another source?

Not long ago, this mailing list was a unique resource for people with an
interest in Thomas Pynchon.  Today, it is no longer such a resource.  It has
become just another staging area for polemics and personal infighting.

If you want to engage in those activities, please find another place to do
it.  There are many to be found on or off the list.  There are, however,
basically no other places online where people from around the world can
focus on Pynchon.  So the loss of this list as a forum for genuinely
Pynchon-related discussion would be significant.

If you have a genuine interest in Pynchon, think about the first time you
came upon this mailing list.  I imagine that you were excited at the
prospect of having Pynchon-focused discussions, learning new things, and
perhaps meeting others with similar interests.  I'd like to believe that you
didn't think to yourself, "Oh, here's a Pynchon mailing list.  I'll make it
a point to bicker with other subscribers and harangue them with the kind of
political discussions that I can already find all over the Net."

I also imagine that new subscribers genuinely interested in Pynchon who took
a look at the past month of posts and get a strong impression that, despite
having the name pynchon-l, the discussion group isn't about Pynchon
anymore--and that any dropouts from the mailing list who checked in again,
thinking about giving the list another try, would drop out pretty fast,
seeing no reason to subscribe.

I realize that it may not seem easy for some subscribers to extricate
themselves from ongoing arguments (Pynchon-related or not) and personal
conflicts.  But there's a lot to be gained and regained from doing just
that.

Please respect this unique mailing list's original concept, and keep it as a
valuable Pynchon resource.

d.