What I wouldn't give for a large sock with horse manure in it.

[Keith McMullen]

Flashback to Annie Hall where Woody Allen is in line at the theater  
with that guy behind him going on about Marshall McLuhan.

MAN: It's the influence of television. Now, now Marshall McLuhan  
deals with it in terms of it being a, a high-- high intensity, you  
understand? A hot medium--

WOODY ALLEN: What I wouldn't give for a large sock with horse manure  
in it.

MAN: -- as opposed to the truth which he [sees as the] media or--

WOODY ALLEN: What can you do when you get stuck on a movie line with  
a guy like this behind you?

MAN: Now, Marshall McLuhan--

WOODY ALLEN: You don't know anything about Marshall McLuhan's work--

MAN: Really? Really? I happen to teach a class at Columbia called TV,  
Media and Culture, so I think that my insights into Mr. McLuhan,  
well, have a great deal of validity.

WOODY ALLEN: Oh, do you?

MAN: Yeah.

WOODY ALLEN: Oh, that's funny, because I happen to have Mr. McLuhan  
right here. Come over here for a second?

MAN: Oh--

WOODY ALLEN: Tell him.

MARSHALL McLUHAN: -- I heard, I heard what you were saying. You, you  
know nothing of my work. How you ever got to teach a course in  
anything is totally amazing.

WOODY ALLEN: Boy, if life were only like this.


On Sep 24, 2006, at 7:57 PM, pynchonoid wrote:

The Schroedinger's cat thing sounds about right. Some
ambiguity about the interview's status remains,
although less than at the time of its publication --
the more time that passes without a legal challenge
against Playboy Japan the more, seems to me, Pynchon
has no reason to challenge it, lending credence to the
possibility that he approved it in the first place.

Way back when, I heard a rumor that Pynchon was
talking with a US publication about an interview
article around the time Mason & Dixon was published
but decided not to go through with it.

I still wouldn't be surprised to see him do something
like that with the publication of Against the Day,
given the way he's already been out there with the
Book Description, and the milestone this represents in
his career.  I don't think his attitude towards the
press is quite as  monolithic as some say, given the
way he's managed to cooperate with some journalists -
the fax "interview" (that's the word the author used)
for Positively 4th Street, for example, and his
telephone "interview" with CNN after they shot video
of himm when he spoke with a producer and answered
some questions - I forget the exact details, but
expect they are in the archives.