Pynchon and postmodernism

[jbor]

The Interlocutor:

> Derrida and Spivak, Foucault, Fish, Barthes, etc. all say so confidently that
> there can be no reliable epistemology.  HOW DO THEY KNOW?

Add Pynchon to that list and you're getting the idea. There are a couple of
things here: one is that language (the way in which we say something) is
itself an epistemic system. The puns and reflexivity and digressiveness and
modalities and general language play in both Derrida's and Pynchon's work,
for example, serve to keep that notion in constant view. Secondly, it is
through a process of elimination and/or accumulation of examples (quite
within the bounds of empirical methodology) that the various projects have
been undertaken. 

If it helps, think of it as a hypothesis. If you are certain that there is
one single reliable epistemology then it should be a simple task to supply
the refutation and the proof.

best