NE Ohio - AtD Party!

[Paul Mackin]

On Nov 16, 2006, at 11:34 AM, Monte Davis wrote:

>> I think the reason paranoia and secret conspiracy theory now seem
>> dated is that current conspiracies, such as the Bush
>> administration, are so transparent  What's to discover? For
>> us readers, I mean.
>
> Could well be. To me Pynchon's conspiracies are metaphorical and
> tongue-in-cheek, deployed much more to elicit the "Omygod... coulid  
> it be?"
> moments *in his characters' minds* than at making me believe in V.,  
> the
> Trystero, Rilkean angels and the Firm, Vondian fascism, or global war
> between the Clive-Maskelyne and Sino-Jesuit axes.

Oh, I still WANT to believe.

The truly inexorable forces of contemporary life are so impersonal.

Like free trial offers that are impossible to  shut off.

>
> What I value is how he unfolds those moments into the universal human
> experience of looking back -- at your own life as well as the  
> public life of
> your times -- and seeing progressive levels of bigger and deeper  
> patterns
> than you saw while the events were happening. Out of control, I  
> suppose
> that's paranoia; under his aesthetic control, it may just be the  
> beginning
> of wisdom.


The good old days had one big advantage over the present. It wasn't  
necessary to maximize value.

Wall Street wasn't watching everybody like a hawk.

The financial markets should be our main present day source of paranoia

In other ways  the present has shown a lot of improvement.

But what a price.



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