Discussing TRP's Watts Article

[kent mueller]

I've always thought of that article as more in the line of "New Journalism"
(Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Wolfe, etc.) and never tried to read it as actual
reportage. Even though Pynchon fails to put himself in the middle of the
story -- one of the hallmarks of the genre -- it still qualifies in my mind,
since the Genre is Thompson, Wolfe and a thousand would-be columnists in alt
papers across the country, the rules are pretty flexible.

Kent Mueller

> From: "Ghetta Life" <ghetta_outta at hotmail.com>
> Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 13:42:30 +0000
> To: ottosell at yahoo.de, pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Discussing TRP's Watts Article
> 
> 
> Otto,
> 
> Of course you are free to do or not do whatever you want, but nobody has
> called the article "shitty" and what MalignD and I HAVE been doing is
> discussing the merits of the article.  MalignD thinks it is poor journalism,
> and he has listed the reasons he thinks so.  I don't think it should be
> called "journalism," because it is really an editorial, a genre meant for
> expression of personal opinions.  BUT for us to weigh the value of this
> opinion we have to decide whether Pynchon deserves to be believed:  What is
> his REAL LIFE experience with the people of Watts?  He doesn't specifically
> tell us, although he does refer to some conversations with people there.  It
> would have been nice if he'd described the specifics of his journey there.
> 
> That said, I really have a hard time beliving the following "conversations"
> he describes:
> 
>>> Others remember it in terms of music: through much of the rioting seemed
>>> to run, they say, a remarkable empathy, or whatever it is that jazz
>>> musicians feel on certain nights:  everybody knowing what to do and when
>>> to do it without needing a word or a signal:  "You could go up to anybody,
>>> the cats, could be in the middle of burning down a store or something, but
>>> they’d tell you, explain very calm, just what they were doing, what they
>>> were going to do next.  And that’s what they’d do; man, nobody had to give
>>> orders."
> 
> Like I said in my earlier post:
> 
>> I have my sincere doubts about anyone telling Pynchon such things, mainly
>> because it sounds like something he’d write a story about.  It’s something
>> he’d LIKE to have happen.  Does anybody really believe that there was some
>> sort of unspoken, but commonly felt, coordination of action during the
>> riots?  But if one were to believe this description it would lend a certain
>> spirituality or inherent nobility to the rioters.  This is Pynchon’s noble
>> “Street” action which he describes so often (in GR & Vineland) as a
>> wonderful/horrible dance where “pure action” supercedes thought.
> 
> I think it's too coincidental that Pynchon's Jazz obsession and his "Street
> Action" obsession would converge so perfectly in conversations he had in
> Watts.  It just doesn't ring true to my ears or mind.
> 
> Ghetta
> 
> 
>> From: "Otto" <ottosell at yahoo.de>
>> 
>> I'm not responding to the "shitty essay"-argument in shitty posts anymore.
>> 
>> If some people don't want to discuss it's ok to me but then they're out.
> 
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