AtD and 9/11

[David Gentle]

> Why address it at all, then?  At least avant la
> lettre?  Again, don't think of an elephant, don't
> press the litle red button ... normally, conscious,
> shmoncious would be my reply, but ifthere's anyone
> conscious of what tehy're writing, much less
> publishing, it's Pynchon, so ...
I'm going to try this again. Imagine a different Pynchon from the one you 
have in your head. I kind of Elseworlds, What If?... version. A version 
who's kind of tired of people reading crazy shit into his work. A version 
who is not infinately subtle. Your version of P. is the greatest imaginable 
writer. I'm simply asking you to imagine a vision of P. who is a great 
writer but not infinately great.
Now try to imagine this version of P. trying to get across to his readers 
that he wrote a historical novel that may in some ways be relevant to todays 
world (in that the past informs the present) but that he simply didn't set 
out to say anything about Bush/Blair/9-11/Katrina.
Having imagined all that how could he concievably say that in such a way 
that no member of the P-list could assume that he was being ironic?

DG