Watts article

[Paul Mackin]

On Thu, 2004-09-30 at 11:39, Ghetta Life wrote:
> >From: Paul Mackin <paul.mackin at verizon.net>
> > > with which the rest of the group expresses agreement, so Pynchon 
> >incorporates the quote verbatim and attributes it as the sentiment of the 
> >whole group.
> > > That seems to me a more straightforward way to read Pynchon's use of 
> >direct quotation, consensus attributions, and black slang in the article 
> >rather than asserting, over and over again and without evidence, that he 
> >made it all up.
> >
> >In other words it's fiction based on his trip to Watts.
> 
> Right.  One can't quote a group, but one can characterize the sentiments of 
> a group.  That group sentiment is what Pynchon has called "The Mind of 
> Watts, a fictional entity of his making.  Whether that "mind" has anything 
> to say worthy of our attention is up to us to decide.  This is also the case 
> with his "black reality" versus "white fantasy" construct.


I can't see much wrong with calling the thing fiction provided it is
POSTMODERN fiction.

We are sometimes inside the mind of more than just Watts. 

An extra-black presence may without warning jump from behind the curtain
to explain to us stuff we mighty not know about. About how white people
don't have to worry so much about sickness and violence. Or, that we
many sometimes stop remembering the riot straight and start
mythologizing about what happened.  



gotta go

to be continued