IVIV Aunt Reet

[János Székely]

Tore:

My point is this:

The offline computer industry ("information machinery")  was already
in full bloom in the mid-60s to the early 70s, when Pynchon wrote COL
49 and most of GR. So imo the Semyavin passage might be only mock
prophecy, just like Aunt Reet (who isn't familiar with ARPANET)
"foretelling" computerized real-estate databanks. (But still, the
"wave" metaphor suggests that something else is at play.) On the other
hand, IV reaffirms that Pynchon was there with open eyes and
first-hand info in California where and when the Internet was born. So
there is a good chance that the "Heart-to-Heart" dialogue towards the
end of GR is _real_ prophecy (electronic "trip" vs. drugs), and a
spine-tingling one at that.

János


2009/8/30 Tore Rye Andersen <torerye at hotmail.com>:
>
> Janós:
>
>> "Someday there will be computers for all this"
>>
>> A fake after-the-fact forecast quite similar to a fake prophecy
>> written down around 1970, projected back to 1945:
>>
>> "Someday it'll all be done by machine. Information machines. You are
>> the wave of the future." (GR 258)
>
> Even though the prophecy in GR is also projected back in time, I don't
> think it is as 'fake' as the one in IV. Even in 1970, it wasn't all done
> by information machines, and even though the ARPAnet u.s.w. came into
> being at that time, I still tend to see Semyavin's words as genuinely
> prophetic, as opposed to the 'prophecies' in late Pynchon. Cf. my post
> on this from a couple weeks ago:
>
> http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0908&msg=139642&sort=author
>
>> I think the switch from dope subculture to IT with all its
>> consequences is a key background story in IV.
>
> Good call. I agree.
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