I Think I'm a Loon, Now

[Michael Joseph]

Edgar Allen Poe was indeed deeply disturbed and led a harrowing and
destitute life; Jackson Pollack was a self-absorbed drunk; Thomas Pynchon
is a productive, innovative, successful, disciplined, author of immense
erudition and luminous intelligence - possibly a genius. I rather think it
is more fitting to see Pynchon as the measure of normalcy and not the
other way around.


Michael





>      As a dedicated, caring, and pro-bubbly over-paid medical
> professional, I think that one cannot address the "looniness" of
> Pynchon, Beckett, Poe, Pollack, etcetcetc.....without addressing the
> concurrent issue of the use and/or abuse of any of a variety of socially
> acceptable (or unacceptable) intoxicants.  Pynchon alludes to "that
> useful substance" in the SL intro, and also includes references in his
> novels that suggest more than a passing familiarity with various drug
> habits and cultures.
>      This observation provokes a "chicken and egg" debate among those
> who concern themselves with these behaviors, namely; are these ill
> individuals who are self-medicating out of desperation in an uncaring
> society and culture, or are such mental conditions (labelled as
> pathologic) caused by the use of the intoxicant(s)?  To quote from
> National Lampoon's _Radio Dinner_, "Genius is Pain!".  But Syria's leaf
> oaks.....
>                                                truly,
>                                                ruud
>
>
>