Japan Playboy

[Sean Mannion]

Sorry, but as a silent reader of this and the half-dozen other rollicking 
threads strangling my inbox in the last three weeks, I have to say that the 
point of the ENTIRE THREAD seems to me to be lost beneath the thunderous 
sound of war-cries preceding the hunt; problem being that the new book isn't 
out in the wild yet. Since it won't be in anyone's hand 'til december, the 
only way I can think of categorising the recent traffic would be 
fanboy-worship turning to the kind of sour narkiness that emerges when 
everyone realises how bereft of interest and substance these threads about 
the new book will be until then.

The Blurb isn't all that interesting or all that revealing. The title? 
Interesting. Its Contexts? Interesting. Still....

Get over it. We're currently arguing over a potentially-inauthentic and 
currently unverifiable psuedo-interview published by japanese rag-mag. I 
mean, Playboy Japan?? Yes, Playboy Japan. Think about that. Pychon's 
comments on 9/11? To Be Filed Under Who Really Cares. Let's face it. What 
analysis can be offered about 9/11 that won't have been put forward before, 
even be a literary titan? Would it startle you? Or would (as I suspect it 
would) it only serve to ignite another round of raspberry-blowing 'Pynch is 
one of us, we got it right' posts. In which case, not one of you will be 
convinced of the arguments to the contrary of what you hold to be the case, 
or will find some of propping up the Pynchon you prefer.

Personally, I can think of better ways to spend four or five months....

I will single this out, however, because it really attention as an example 
of the kind of flaccid pointless grasping that happens with start typing 
while bored and narky

>And maybe he granted this interview to Japan Playboy, had reasons to 
>address
>his banalities to the Japanese people rather than to Americans, and felt 
>good
>about doing so.  Who knows ...

I have great difficulty giving this particular notion enough of a 
recognisable environment in my mind's eye so that I can't picture it in a 
way that means anything at all, and hence I want to ask what the point of 
this statement was?

Do you mean, Pynchon granted the interview, and subconsciously thought 
'...aw, this book isn't going anywhere man - but I know - I'll take all 
these average everyday banalities swirling around my head, killing my art, 
and unload them on the Japs. I hate the Japs. Hell, man, they don't deserve 
no better, n' anyway - better out than in....where's the phone'. If Japanese 
get the banal, and the Americans bet the cream, what does he think of the 
Limeys....