AtD and 9/11

[Keith McMullen]

Reading the present day into Pynchon's fiction has been the least  
interesting avenue explored here, and yet it is the most prevalent.  
Hell, Dana Medora's menstrual reading is a stretch from my  
perspective, but at least it is fascinating and creative. The "modern  
day" readings are banal and boring. Not one thing comes from them  
that adds anything to an understanding of Pynchon, nor to a deeper  
understanding of current affairs. I'm sick of seeing Pynchon used to  
prove that he agrees with a reader's politics. So what. Not one thing  
has been posted on this list that shows how Pynchon deepens our  
understanding of the current political situation. It's all been  
little more than "Bush is an asshole, and look, Pynchon thinks he's  
an asshole, too." So fucking what. If I were Pynchon, I'd try to get  
people off that soapbox, too. It trivializes the hell out of the  
complexity and depth of his fiction, which is about so much more than  
current affairs. But, people are so addicted to using Pynchon to  
support their left wing politics that they miss the incredible scope  
of what he is doing. And when he says, "Hey reader. My work is not  
intended to be about current affairs," you are seen as a fucking  
idiot if you don't get that he's just kidding, just pulling a Samuel  
Clemens on us. Pynchon belongs in better company than Samuel Clemens.

On Aug 16, 2006, at 5:04 PM, David Gentle wrote:

> Do some people on this list actually think that this is not  
> intended ironically??!!!
> Steve Maas
>
>
> Pynchon wrote:
>> No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred.
I'm not saying either way.
Ages ago (years) I made the point that we all have our own personal  
idea of what P. is like, our own personal Pynchon in our heads.
I think people are reading an awful lot of what they want to believe  
about P. into his words. The analysis of the intro to Slow Learner  
from a couple of years ago that basically refused to take anything he  
actually said at face value and assumed that there was some infinate  
depth to what seemed, to me at least, to be fairly straightforward  
statements bothered me. Maybe the guy really does believe that he's  
not that great. Maybe he believes that he's not as good as everyone  
else says he is. Maybe that's why he stays out of the limelight.
But I don't know. And neither does anyone else here.
That's all I'm saying really.

DG