Was Reading and discussing Pynchon's texts

[Steve Maas]

davemarc, as usual a voice of reason, has several excellent comments.  I 
especially like his suggestion that each participant in the next group read 
submit a short essay--only I vote for trying this novel (he he) approach on 
_Vineland _ rather than another author's book.

stevemaas

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davemarc sez:

As for what the list will discuss next, I would prefer for it to go through 
a cooling-off period that might help us regain our senses, including a 
positive sense of pynchon-l identity. I'd be interested in seeing what would 
happen if, say, July (or a week or even a day) became strictly 
Pynchon-related with nobody posting more than once per day. Maybe that would 
get us out of bad ruts and make sending and receiving mail on pynchon-l less 
of a nuisance and more of a pleasure. If we can't eliminate flaming, I 
wonder if we could at least try something like Flame-Free Fridays. (Or Flame 
Only on Fridays?) I have my doubts.

If there is a Pale Fire discussion, I suggest that it be a "Pynchon and Pale 
Fire" discussion. I also have a suggestion that I wish I'd brought up for 
the 1984 Foreword: Instead of atomizing the discussion as has been done in 
the past, perhaps each participant could simply contribute a 500-1000 word 
essay that would be posted on an agreed-upon date. After the participants 
review the essays, they'd then write a follow-up essay of the same length, 
to be delivered on an agreed-upon date. I think this structure might lead to 
some impressive, um, erudition while diminishing the opportunities for flame 
fights and redundancy. And who knows? Maybe the essays would be book- or 
journal- or conference-worthy.

d.

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