Watts article

[Dave Monroe]

All they indicate is that those lines are presented as
representing speech, is all.  And I've been reading
those instances as often as not as more representative
speech than representations OF (actual) speech.  What
you might hear--"'Time was,' you'll hear," "as others
are putting it," whatever.  But, yeah, some quotes are
presented AS such ("'But why?' asked one white lady
volunteer").  I'm not so worried that any individual
actually said precisely what Pynchon writes to
Pynchon, I've been assuming he's as much trying to
establish a feel, a tone, whatever, as anything--and
that's mayb where I've my reservations, that "White
Negro" thing, appropriating "negro" hipness and
constructing "negro" authenticity--doesn't read all
that differently from many "man on the street," "human
interest," whatever columns that I read (save maybe
the lack of names and certain other typical
specificities, but Pynchon is decidedly NOT a
journalist, so ...).  I think some of the quotes
and/or dialogue sounds inauthentic largely because, to
us, it's dated ("cats"), and it perahsp sounds even
les convincing when seemingly the word of The Man
hisself, but ... but, without sharing MalignD's
verdict on the essay, I do see some of his points. 
Perhaps not guilty on ALL charges, and I'd be a rather
more lenient judge when it came to sentencing, but ...

--- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
>
>  The fact that inverted commas have been used does
> indicate that the words have been quoted, however.

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