CoL49 (5) Sidney [Genghis] Cohen

[Robin Landseadel]

On Jun 30, 2009, at 10:26 AM, Paul Mackin wrote:
>
> Yeah and God Bless the Dude.
>
> I think I once suggested to Charles that he reframe his arguments so
> as to present Lot 49 as an allegory of how conspiracy theories work.
>
> Does everyone realize it was almost exactly ten years ago (April, May,
> June of '99) that Charles posted extensively to the p-list under the
> name of Dudious Max.
>
> He also corresponded privately to just about everyone who was a
> regular poster at the time.
>
> Several of us are still around.
>
> P.

I received a missive or two from the Dude myself last year. He thought  
I was on to something [thanks!] and that I have to clean up my act in  
terms of grammar, citations, the basic mechanics of writing [true.] He  
also has a shared interest in high-end audio, here's an excellent  
recent example:

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue42/parasound.htm

My sense is that the Dude is on to something, but that a lot of his  
stuff seems as mis-directed as Oedipa's quest. However, more than  
anyone else, his writings turned me on to the autobiography and family  
history in Pynchon's books. My sense is that the Pynchon family  
history of big money, heresy and science gets wrapped into the  
author's novels. Maintaining "radio silence" around his personal life  
helps to maintain an additional bit of mystery in his books. Still,  
when reading Pynchon I just can't help but think of how much energy he  
pours into the visionary state of mind and the probable modes of entry  
that got him there. Whatever else is going on in CoL49, JFK simply is  
not the first thing that comes to mind—LSD is.