Pynchon mention by Al Gore

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

           Daniel Harper:
           It's the second hit for "al gore charlie rose" on 
           Google Video.
 
           About forty-four minutes in, he quotes TRP as 
           saying "if you can get them to ask the right questions . . . .

It's a direct quote, and one of Pynchon's best. 

           Proverbs for Paranoids:
           1. You may never get to touch the Master, but 
           you can tickle his creatures.
           2. The innocence of the creatures is in inverse 
           proportion to the immorality of the Master.
           3. If they can get you asking the wrong questions, 
           they don't have to worry about answers.
           4. You hide, they seek.
           5. Paranoids are not paranoid because they're 
           paranoid, but because they keep putting 
           themselves, fucking idiots, deliberately into 
           paranoid situations.
           -- Collected from Gravity's Rainbow, V237, 241, 251, 262, & 292

http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_quotes.html

It's one of the canonical "proverbs for paranoids", and the one I'm most
likely to drop into the development section of some hyper-conspiratorial 
screed. Proverb for Paranoids #3 is about a good a suggestion as how to 
approach A: The verbal, public expressions of all politicians, no matter 
what their political stripe and B: specific instructions as how to read all of 
Pynchon. Gore ain't my ideal, but he nailed it with that one. Loved his 
response to to a Jon Stewart line as regards the title of Gore's new book 
Assult On Reason: "well,  reason had it coming", like some kinda Catskills 
Cohen.

Warning, this clip is prefaced by a Chevy ad, appealing to nostalgic 
boomers looking for new wheels with a top 40 beat. Chevrolet. As 
a preface. To Mr. Global Warming. Now here's today's assult on 
Reason/your moment of zen.

http://tinyurl.com/29k74o

The series of Proverbs for Paranoids is finally topped off by a personal 
favorite:

           . . . .Like other sorts of paranoia, it is nothing less 
           than the onset, the leading edge, of the discovery 
           that everything is connected, everything in the 
           Creation, a secondary illumination---not yet blind-
           ingly One, but at least connected, and perhaps a 
           route In for those like Tchitcherine who are held at 
           the edge. . . ." P 717,  V 703

Judging by the tone of that one, I'd gather that Pynchon is quite keen on 
illumination, and that the Kabbalistic references within TRPs writings come
from the heart, not from the urge to ridicule or somehow invert the basic 
message. Interesting to note a little science item that popped up in the paper 
today:

           The results were showing that when the volunteers 
           placed the interests of others before their own, the 
           generosity activated a primitive part of the brain 
           that usually lights up in response to food or sex. 
           Altruism, the experiment suggested, was not a 
           superior moral faculty that suppresses basic selfish 
           urges but rather was basic to the brain, hard-wired 
           and pleasurable. . . .

There's quite a few examples of altruism trumping self-centered behavior in
Against the Day, selfless acts ultimately rewarded, evil deeds avenged by
karmic blowback. These karmic adjustments play a big part in TRP's writings
and speak to the essential interconnectedness of all things.

http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/62163.html