The most important Pynchon Quote

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

           robin:
            "If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to 
            worry about answers."

            GR, V251

           Dave Monroe:
           A.greed.  But one really should ask, then, might Pynchon himself be
           getting us to ask the wrong questions?  Purposefully?  How?  Why?  

The Crying of Lot 49 is misdirection gone wild, full of encrypted messages that
[via the encryption] get lost, save for the Dude, I guess. I do not have the 
Dude's certainty that CoL49 is "about" JFK's assassination, but I can clearly 
see MK Ultra—another CIA operation.

           DM:
           I believe it was Terrance's--and perhaps Robert's (jbor's) as
           well--contention that the Pynchonian ouevre was nigh unto landmined
           with "red herrings," that, as I read them, perhaps Those Who Know
           (e.g., Terrnace, Robert, presumably) could see as such. 

I can smell them from here. Mind you, it would be hard to miss the spy thriller
and mystery genre elements in all of Pynchon's books, and if you're a P.I.
in a thriller it's all about red herrings and false trails.

           Meanwhile, I
           believe it's Charles Hollander's (The Dude's) contention that
           Pynchon's purpose is precisely to get us to ask the right questions,
           e.g., ...

http://www.vheissu.info/art/art_eng_49_hollander.htm

           Either/or.  Both/and ...

. . . .maybe. . . .