Derrida and Pynchon

[jbor]

on 13/10/04 8:22 AM, jbor wrote:

> It's quite clear, then, that the ideas of Derrida, amongst other
> poststructuralists, do provide ample ground for intelligent discussion and
> interpretation of Pynchon's work. Not so Chomsky's Language Acquisition
> Device theory, behaviourist linguistics, or the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, I'm
> afraid, which were dead in the water thirty, forty and fifty years ago
> respectively.

If someone is game to try to exhume and resuscitate these long-defunct
dogmas, or to demonstrate where and how Pynchon's work embraces positivism
or behaviourism or objectivism, by all means go for it. As the bishop said
to the showgirl (paraphrasing), "I'm all ears." Boom-tish.

Same goes for one or other of the current fashions in the "cognitive
science" arena. That is, if The Interlocutor is up to the task.

The point does remain, of course, gormless assertions to the contrary
notwithstanding, that there has been much discussion and interpretation
of Pynchon's work -- intelligent and worthwhile too -- which takes
poststructuralism and/or deconstruction as its primary frame of reference.

best