NPPF -- no need to relate to Pynchon . . . .?

[davemarc]

People keep referring, with varying degrees of accuracy, to my suggestions regarding the Nabokov/Pale Fire discussion. As I recall, I tried to address two issues.

One was the possibility that pynchon-l was not the best place for an extensive Nabokov/Pale Fire-centered discussion. I suggested various ways to cover Nabokov/Pale Fire without diverting the focus from this list's raison d'etre. Options would include discussing the book on the nabokov-list and reporting back, creating a new list (i.e. on yahoogroups.com) for a discussion and reporting back, or using a kind of essay format instead of the freewheeling format. In all cases, the content of the posts could revolve around Pynchon/Nabokov/Pale Fire.

The other issue had to do with the possibility that the traditional pynchon-l reading routine might not be the best reading routine for Pale Fire (or even Pynchon's books). Just because it's "always" been done one way doesn't mean that it has to be done that way. My suggestions included the essay format mentioned above.

It seems to me that the people who thought that the suggestions were worth looking into were not the people who organized the Nabokov/Pale Fire discussion. Those organizers seem determined to go ahead with the discussion with little or no interest in addressing the reasonable concerns of other pynchon-l subscribers. I realize that can sound more critical than I intend it to--I'm simply trying to describe how all of this seems to have played out. 

I've been impressed by the quality of the Nabokov/Pale Fire discussion thus far, but I'm still puzzled as to why the discussion is taking place on pynchon-l. What continues to bug me is the rancor in posts from David Morris, MalignD, pynchonoid, and slothenvypride. I've seen so much better from all four of them. I suspect they're deluding themselves if they think that abusing pynchon-l subscribers with their flames and feuding puts them in a positive light. 

d.
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