Luddites revisited 1

[Joseph Tracy]

Okay here is my original introduction as the host of the Luddite essay. I will follow this with some other research, thoughts, questions, but am, as always, ready for the glorious digression, etc.

Sorry if multiple messages are arriving. I'm having a problem either sending to or receiving from the p-list. other email works ok. 

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What follows are some brief excerpted passages from the Snow lecture, which is the source document of the Pynchon essay Is it O.K. to be a Luddite? we are scheduled to look into The TP essay can be found here(http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_luddite.html ) I am nervous about the copyright problems of OCRing the whole lecture and putting it online, but may put up more to further the discussion. One thing you wouldn�t get without reading the whole thing is Snow�s blithe dismissal of any possibility that there was serious social resistance to industrialization. According to him tradesmen, craftspeople and farmers couldn't wait to get off those boring, degrading farms and out of those gloomy cottages into a pleasant stimulating factory. This omission, joined with the fact that he never defines the term Luddite becomes the launching ground of TP�s essay. After dismissing the 2 cultures premise as no longer sustainable, Pynchon sets out to also question the pejorative and snootily dismissive use of the term Luddite. He begins to fill out the track of a far more complex and nuanced history particularly of the literary aspect of the conflict between true believers in science and technology and those who have serious questions. 

Quotes from Rede lecture in next email
Joseph Tracy
brook7 at earthlink.net
Why Wait? Move to EarthLink.
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