What Pynchon wrote?

[Paul Nightingale]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On
> Behalf Of Terrance
> Sent: 28 May 2003 00:56
> Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Re: What Pynchon wrote?
> 
>  Moreover, I would take this one step further and juxtapose Blair/the
> world (ie the
> > real, flesh-&-blood human being who really does live and breath) to
> > Orwell/history-as-writing/the text ... which is precisely the
opposition
> > that P makes. Which I think answers your first question.
> 
>  I'm willing to admit that P constructs this opposition Blair/Orwell
for
> now.
> 
> 
> What significance do you attribute to P addressing the identity
> question?


Haven't I answered this yet? I thought I had. After all, to name is to
know. To name is to label, and labelling might be a control mechanism,
in many senses of the word 'control'. But to be effective, the
name/label has to fit, or appear to, perfectly: the signifier has to
'be' the signified. Right from the outset, then, P uses the opposition
Blair/Orwell to challenge that kind of reading. When reading the first
para I notice the juxtaposition of B to O; the significance becomes
apparent when I read on and see how it fits in with the way he starts to
describe the novel. P addresses the identity qu in all of his work, I
think, it's one of the characteristics of his work. Which is not to say
that in particular makes him unique, or that is what makes him unique
... simply to say it helps us understand the Foreword as a Pynchon-text.