Against the use of dictionaries and other extraneous materials

[Dave Monroe]

Actually, I think it's been shown here and elsewhere
that Pynchon would almost have to have been familiar
with various dictionary entries, certainly with
etyomlogies, secondary and/or archaic definitions, et
al.  Sure, he wouldn't necessarily have had to have
gotten 'em from a dictionary, er se--he could've
learned everything on the street, it's concievable, at
any rate, or at least in teh course of reading other
books, but ...

And do note that it's not likely that "we," whoever
"we" might be, th ANYONE would "have" the entirety of
the language Pynchon "has."  Esp. keeping in mind that
proper names, dates, specialized terminology, slang,
et al., are also part and parcel of language ...

That judge perhaps didn't take into consideration (I
haven't yet read the article, but it's beside the
point for me at the moment ...) that knowledge,
memory, et al., isn't so neatly compartmentalized into
"internal" and "external."  And that, certainly, not
everything taht anyone knows is picked up on "the
street," and even if/when it is, it ultimately came
from somehwere else, very likely, esp. in the case of
the "special" cases (which  are actually quite common,
in both Pynchon and in everyday life) mentioned above
(names, slang, jargon, et al.).  Esp. given the
(overtly or otehrwise) figurative ways in which much
of this language is used ...

That there is no such thing (pace Noam Chomsky, but
he's speaking of structures, not the specificities
tehy presumably structure) as "innate" knowledge, at
least--especially, even--when it comes to language ...

Gotta run, will be back ...

--- Paul Mackin <paul.mackin at verizon.net> wrote:

> There might be something to be said for applying
> the judge's ruling in the Moussaoui sentencing trial
> (to some degree anyway) to the reading of novels.
> including Pynchon novels.  It's better to rely on
> the language we have, not the language the
> dictionary has.
> 
> I don't imagine many novelists ever look up the
> words they use in the dictionary....

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