Archives & Wikis?

[Ian Livingston]

Thank God the dogs can talk and thank God the author has a magic
lantern to cast his images upon a screen even if the images never say
exactly what he means.

I think, Alice, you have loosed a bull's eye here.  Is this a
definition of art?  Were OBA writing non-fiction it would be
unacceptable that he lead us to where reason falters and words tremble
and humbly bend as if to the shadows, wherein reside all the demons
and gods.  Only the artist can take us to that precipice on the edge
of "nowhere."

On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 6:54 PM, alice
wellintown<alicewellintown at gmail.com> wrote:
> As I search the Pynchon-l archives and the Wiki / Against the Day I'm
> very impressed with the discussion and the reseach.
> Thank you for all your hard work.
> I've noticed that there is excellent research and commantary in the
> P-L archives that is not on the Wiki.
> Is there a reason for this?
>
> For example,  a poem by Robert W. Service, "The Shooting of Dan
> McGrew" is discussed in the P-L archives but is not included on the
> Wiki.
>
> To what Kieth sz, Mark K, and Mikebaily wrote, I  would add, Service
> was a Bank clerk. AtD constantly challanges us to re-read ironies.
> How can one read a violent pornographic scene with unemotional
> detachment? How can one avoid the trap of a grim and humorous voice?
> A cool voice describing a hot scene? A heated voices describing
> nothing to heated about? A spriritual and ritualistic voice that sails
> and sails and lifts and lifts us nowhere. Pynchon does this
> constantly. He plays with the conventional scenes and chapter starts
> and endings. It reads like the end of a Dickens chapter except it's
> not. This ironic voice speaks with praise while it blames.
>
> You took a fine time to leave me ...Traverse (pick one).
>
> Of course, what is meant is that "it is [now, after the above ironic
> statement] impossible to say just what I mean" (Prufrock Hamlet said
> that).
>
> Thank God the dogs can talk and thank God the author has a magic
> lantern to cast his images upon a screen even if the images never say
> exactly what he means.
>
> Thank God he tells us that much and of this we can be certain: it is
> impossible to say just wehat he means.
>