rubrics (I like that word), wrecking crews and hugfests

[Robin Landseadel]

On Dec 1, 2009, at 10:11 AM, David Morris wrote:
> Mr Tracey,

sic

> There are more than a few believers on this list, and "takes
> seriously" to me implies "considers their literal existence to be
> credible or at least possible," which is essentially how Mike Bailey
> put it:  "obviously fake phenomenon" Vs. "more objectively verifiable
> phenomena."  In other words believable versus unbelievable without
> great leaps of faith.  But, unless were talking to "believers" (in
> things not verifiable), I'd say Pynchon's mission is to draw
> EVERYTHING into question, not as to existence, but to meaning.
>
> Jeeze...
>
> Right.  There are somethings that "exist in the imagination" and
> others that exist despite anyone's need to imagine them.  And Pynchon
> considers and compares them all.  And EVERYTHING in both categories
> are potential "objects of satire or ridicule" in Pynchon's worlds.

Of maybe there's more than enough of the Hippie/Freak in our  
illustrious author that he would regularly use these modes of scrying  
which would help explain why the subject comes up in practically all  
his texts.

	Jim Hall, who at the time was a Green Beret stationed at nearby
	 Fort MacArther, also knew Pynchon during these years.

	"I was living in Manhattan Beach and dating a woman at UCLA
	who was a friend of his," Hall said. "We would hang out at his
	place occasionally. I honestly didn't know anything about him. I
	knew he was some sort of famous writer, but that was about it."

	According to Hall, Pynchon spent a lot of time at a local hangout
	called the Fractured Cow, and was also known to put away a
	burrito or two at a little Mexican joint on Rosecrans Avenue
	called El Tarasco, which is still a popular place today.

	With shaggy hair and the rumpled look of a writer, Pynchon
	possessed an intellect that was immediately noticeable to Hall.

	"He was interesting, very intense, really smart," said Hall. "He
	was light years beyond anyone else."
	Hall also noted that Pynchon was intensely private and
	extremely paranoid.

	"I think he studied people," Hall said. "I don't think you were
	allowed around him if you weren't interesting and you weren't
	allowed back if he couldn't trust you."

	Hall is sure that he was being studied because a conversation
	he recalled having with Pynchon about the police using
	computer surveillance to track drug dealers turned up in the
	author's novel "Vineland" 20 years later. He claimed that
	horoscopes Pynchon did of Hall and others turned up on behalf
	of characters in "Gravity's Rainbow."

http://www.theaesthetic.com/NewFiles/pynchon.html

Elsewhere we read of Pynchon reading Tarot cards for friends. Tarot  
cards are all over Against the Day—as in the history of the  
development of—and Gravity's Rainbow. Maybe Pynchon isn't as  
"rational" as you claim or "Rational" in the way you claim, maybe  
Pynchon's Doc's Doppelgänger. Or verse Vice-a.