That's "C.S. Peirce" he should have known or fact-checked before posting

[Mark Kohut]

--- On Sat, 12/5/09, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: Can or should creative writing be taught?
> To: "Robin Landseadel" <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
> Cc: "pynchon -l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>, alicewellintown at gmail.com
> Date: Saturday, December 5, 2009, 2:22 PM
> Robin,
> 
> Find C.S. Pierce on self-organizing, at least. There is an
> essay on (early) Pynchon using this concept. Pierce was
> America's greatest philosopher, most say, including Wm.
> James hisself, most famous American pragmatist
> probably---Menand in that recommended book does, I believe.
> 
> See if self-organizing does NOT remind you of the anarchist
> dance miracle.
> 
> See other Pierce which should all be in public domain
> online. See him on the open-ended universe and much, much
> more. 
> 
> I agree with alice's recommendation re The Metaphysical
> Club. In one book, an education. In one book, the major
> stream of American philosophy which will illumine
> Pynchon---and many others. 
> 
> We might read it online while reading our next
> Pynchon???  
> 
> Mark
> 
> P.S. Confession re Menand: his negative review of Against
> the Day (in the New Yorker) struck deeper in me than Wood's
> ever did. I have not reread it 'cause i don't care if, as
> judgment, he is right. The book is STILL worth explicating
> for whatever it is. 
> 
> --- On Sat, 12/5/09, Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
> wrote:
> 
> > From: Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
> > Subject: Re: Can or should creative writing be
> taught?
> > To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> > Date: Saturday, December 5, 2009, 11:42 AM
> > On Dec 5, 2009, at 6:46 AM, alice
> > wellintown wrote:
> > 
> > > There are only a few academic articles that
> discuss
> > the American
> > > philosophical strain that informs Pynchon’s
> works. I
> > mean Pragmatism.
> > > But they are buried under the stacks that claim
> or
> > assume Pynchon’s
> > > philosophical influences are Eastern,
> Transcendental,
> > or not
> > > philosophical but Theosophical.
> > 
> > It would be useful/helpful if you were to offer up
> the
> > titles and authors of the academic articles that
> frame
> > Pynchon's writing within the boundaries of Pragmatism.
> I'm
> > not certain what your background is, other than
> > college-level English—it's the specifics that make
> me
> > curious. It's clear that you're framing some of your
> ideas
> > concerning Pynchon's writing in the context of
> Hawthorne,
> > Melville and Henry James—were you reading these
> authors in
> > your college studies or is this a more of a personal
> quest?
> > I gather that Pragmatism is important for you, you
> may
> > correctly gather that I know nothing about the
> subject. I
> > suspect that I am not alone on this list in that
> regard. As
> > Dixon says on page 314 of "Mason & Dixon": "Amuse
> me."
> > 
> > I can claim no proper College education but I can
> claim an
> > ability to extract meaning from context. Pynchon's
> books
> > have many references to Theosophical and Occult
> systems. The
> > manner in which this material is presented is—to
> these
> > eyes, at least—by no means negative. Sortilège is
> always
> > right. Geli Tripping appears to commit a most virtuous
> &
> > Christian act using the tools and resources of Black
> Magic.
> > The shamans in Pynchon's tales, already on the right
> track,
> > willingly send various lost characters back to the
> right
> > path. I'd point to Lew Basnight's various
> > transformations—starting on page 38 of Against the
> > Day—as among the more interesting demonstrations of
> > magical actions and their karmic consequences to be
> found in
> > TRP's books. For whatever reason, this is a subject
> that
> > reappears constantly in TRP's writing.
> > 
> > You may be scrying negative messages concerning the
> > "Non-Scheduled Theologies" that are tossed into
> Pynchon's
> > tales but I'm seeing acre lots of Magical Realism,
> often
> > with attendant signifiers of Parrots, magickal tools
> &
> > really cute Witches. There also appears to be various
> fables
> > within these books that require Charles Hollander's
> "Magic
> > Eye" in order to properly contextualize—I'd give a
> nod to
> > Doc 'n Bigfoot's perambulations around West Hollywood
> as a
> > more secular example. In any case, Pynchon has always
> seemed
> > to be more of a publicans and sinners kind of guy
> anyway.
> > I've probably said this too many times already, but
> it
> > appears that heresy itself is the author's true idée
> fixe.
> > I'm not attempting to box the author into some
> subdivision
> > of a Wiccan enclave, rather I'd assert that the author
> is an
> > extraordinarily heretical Christian. Excessively
> Catholic,
> > one might say.
> > 
> > A lot of Pynchon is concerned with forks in the road.
> This
> > all seems like a very "Hippy" trip to me, and Pynchon
> seems
> > to spend an awful lot of his efforts and considerable
> > resources focusing on this lost tribe. I've been
> saying for
> > a long time "Take the man at his word." As far as I
> can
> > tell, the man spends an awful lot of words engaged
> with
> > Magic and the context in which the author is placing
> these
> > observations appears to be "The Counterculture." If
> there
> > are "only a few academic articles that discuss the
> America
> > philosophical strain that informs Pynchon’s works"
> perhaps
> > that is due to those articles being outliers. Perhaps
> the
> > limited amount of biographical material concerning
> the
> > author is actually useful, particularly in the context
> of
> > the current novel. Perhaps the author owes more to
> Jack
> > Kerouac than to William & Henry James.
> > 
> > > That said, I hope people will go on teaching
> writing.
> > Teach people to
> > > write poems, letters, essays, editorials. Teach
> them
> > to read, comics,
> > > billboards, Cassill's Norton Anthology of Short
> > Fiction. It's the
> > > democratic thing to do. God knows we need to do
> > everything we can to
> > > get out democracy back in the hands of citizens
> who
> > read and write
> > > well.
> > > 
> > > As Walt Whitman sez, Give them Books, Open the
> > Libraries!
> > > http://www.whitmanarchive.org/criticism/current/anc.00159.html
> > 
> > Amen to that!
> > 
> > 
> 
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