Einstein Letter

[kelber at mindspring.com]

ATD, p. 936:

"If this was a map, it was like none Cyprian had ever seen.  Instead of place-names there were hundreds of what looked like short messages.  Everything reproduced in just one color, violet ..."

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Henry <scuffling at gmail.com>
>Sent: May 15, 2008 10:33 AM
>To: 'Pynchon Liste' <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: RE: Einstein Letter
>
>Yes, you're right Laura, I was a little offensive there. Thanks. I value your thoughts on this, but for better or for worse, a college-boy wouldn't use that color unless he was making a point as gay or feminine, and so, perhaps, neither should a woman.  Certainly none of the Traverse boys would, but I do believe that Yashmeen would use it carefully, i.e. in letters to other girls or to a lover.  In the not so distant past, I was the recipient of lavender-inked letters: I was a young man, and all the purple-prose was from young women.  Those letters were earnest, but no more appropriate for public discourse than my dysgraphic handwriting would be in any color.
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>To be aware of cultural norms is no more sexist than recognizing potch-tanses as curious, and perhaps even joking a little about them, would be ethnocentric/jingoistic, there being little, if any implication of superiority.  College boys simply didn't have those couple-on-the-beach-watching-the-sunset “Happiness is” posters in their rooms, and the girls didn't have the inch of dirt on the floor.  
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>Or have things changed to such an unimaginable (by me, at least) extent?
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>HENRY MU
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>http://www.urdomain.us/scuffling.htm 
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>-----Original Message-----
>From: Laura
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>Your point would be better made without the sexist innuendo.
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>Laura
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>-----Original Message-----
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>>From: Henry 
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><major snip by Laura>
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>>A-and next time, how about losing the college-girl plump lavender font?
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><snip>
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>>======================================
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>>From: Ivana
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>> 
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>Dear Albert,
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><major snip by Henry>
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