IVIV (12): 195-197

[Monte Davis]

alice wellintown asks:

> How can any reader of V. and GR and M&D and AtD say that 
> P's texts do not ascribe agency to technology?...

Easy. I did, and wasn't even breathing hard.

> Dudes, you guys have fallen off a cliff now. Come back to the texts.

I never left them -- and offered from GR 521 a very explicit pointer to THEY
-- the actual (and always human) agents of the world. 

(BTW, did you notice that paragraph begins 

"Yes but Technology only responds [...] 'All very well to talk about...' " 

Well, see, alice, that's an example of *personification*. It doesn't mean
Technology has, y'know, lungs and vocal cords and a functioning Broca's area
and all.)

You, by contrast, proceed from the line above to many many lines of the
usual erudite logorrhea ("Another gnosticising factor is present,
ironically, in the mere existence of the
epistemological question"), amazing us all with your range of reference
(from Zappa to Voegelin, whoah!) ... without ever quite getting around to an
example from the texts of Pynchon non-parodically, non-metaphorically
ascribing agency to technology. 

I'm sure you meant to, but you're a very very busy busy lady or fellow, as
the case may be, and I won't take up any more of your time. 

-Monte