Politics

[Terrance]

jbor wrote:
> 
> It's no surprise to see Weaver attempting to misrepresent my words. 


> All that, however, is by the way. What I found ironic and laughable was the
> absolute assertion he made that "nihilism" is always ultimately allied to
> the "extreme right" (no more true than asserting the same of anarchism), and
> his attempt to bully and silence Prozak because his political profile
> doesn't conform to what Weaver and co. consider to be the "correct" one for
> this discussion-list.
> 
> To paraphrase Voltaire, while I don't agree with much of anything Prozak
> posts, I do defend his right to post it.


Yes and now we have Barb doing the same number. It's no surprise at all. 
These political assholes have ruined the Pynchon List. They want to
argue about Pynchon's Foreword to 1984 because it hasn't been published.
They want to debate Iraq. They have proven that their views of such
matters are based on feelings and not facts. 
They want to run people off the list and censor them. And what have they
to say about a Pynchon story, a Pynchon novel, a Pynchon essay? Nothing
at all. How about 1984? Nothing? 


In 1984, Newspeak is language that has been deliberately distorted and
designed to ensure the political enslavement of speakers. Its objective
is to render all thoughts contrary to the Party unthinkable. Recall that
final parable, the final vision in the novel wherein we are told  what
will happen when Newspeak replaces Oldspeak entirely-a horrible and bone
chilling vision of what will happen when the deliberate manipulation of
language makes freedom of thought, and therefore expression, impossible. 

1984 is now available in Afghanistan. It's banned in Iraq, Iran, and
North Korea. Anyway, the parable is not one that translates well. For
there is, particularly now, a sense in which the heterogeneity and
versatility, flexibility and variety of the English language seems to
guarantee to its users their individual right to think and to express
their free thoughts without encumbrance. This freedom and flexibility is
unmistakably English.  English has no equivalent to the  Academy
Francaise and it's safe to say it never will because the idea that
Language can or should be subjected to the dictatorial control of an
elite sitting in an ivory tower is repugnant to English language
speakers. It is as offensive and as obnoxious as censorship itself. 

While I plead with the List to quit these political debates and return
to Pynchon, I don't fail to recognize that doing so opens me to charges
of hypocrisy. 

But it needs to be said here, unfortunately, that this is the Pynchon
List and 

"The destruction of words is [not] a beautiful thing." 

Blair, 1984