Pynchon's reply

[Michael Bailey]

> Dave is here referring to an article by Rob Jackson in the Pynchon
> Notes, for those of us who may not have known that.
> (I have list-nanny inclinations...will try to find said article on post a link)

I guess I saw it in one of my hard-copy Pynchon Notes?


>  I've stated all my grand unified
> theories of Pynchon here several times.
> Now if I could only remember them...and if only they were coherent...

what I can remember: they are the Oneirine of readings: "dullest known
to man" (or woman)
a) Pynchon is primarily a storyteller
b) language is what people really live in, the way termites live in wood
c) stories are important, in fact, the most valuable element of
religion is storytelling, people sitting around the campfire and there
isn't a crisis just at that moment, so there's this guy/gal who is
kind of weird, and he/she takes hold of the "talking stick"...and
people look forward to this...and remember it...
d) in fact, a (possibly "the") key to science is also competent
narrative, telling what happened so as to be able to know how things
happen...developing the power of description
e) he wants to be thought of as a storyteller (Hollander letter, but
also M&D, stories within stories)

from the foregoing, it is intuitively obvious... (zzzzzzzzzzz)