1984 Foreword

[jbor]

on 13/5/03 8:43 PM, slothenvypride at slothenvypride7 at yahoo.com wrote:

> Thanks for responding, Rob.

You're welcome. Always a real treat to have input from someone such as
yourself.

> Frankly, Pynchon's essay says things just fine.  And my point was that
> Millison's interpretation of the Pynchonalia within that essay made far more
> sense and made a far better attempt to connect Pynchon's and Orwell's work
> than yours did,

Where did you get the impression that that was my intention? I agree that
much might be made of the way Pynchon cross-references Orwell's ideas with
those of contemporary and near-contemporary thinkers and writers: Pavlov,
F.S. Fitzgerald, Whitman, Schrodinger, James Burnham, Rilke; as well as his
treatment of the historical and biographical stuff relating to Orwell. But I
guess I do disagree with the suggestion that Pynchon deliberately decided to
use the essay as a platform for advertising his own novels or as an excuse
to write a political polemic.

> My other point was that your blatant flamebait did little to conceal your
> unwillingness to accept that fact.

Flamebait? You mean to say you *don't* believe that Pynchon is poking fun at
those who indulge in simplistic political diatribes with his little parody?

    "Wow, the Government has turned into Big Brother, *just like
    Orwell predicted!* Something, huh?" "Orwellian, dude!" (xvi)

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0096928

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