JFK

[Carvill, John]

> The best counter to what I'm doing is to come up with alternate  
readings. 

I'm not sure I agree with this. Just because I don't come up with 'an alternative reading' to yours, doesn't forbid me from disagreeing with your reading, does it?

>... I simply am following leads in the text and seeing where they go.

Cool.


> By way of example-I always assumed that Charles Hollander was over- 
reading and projecting when he came up with his "Magic Eye" reading of  
"The Crying of Lot 49."

Well, yeah, he probably was. But his stuff is still interesting, and obviously the result of a lot of effort and thinking through.

<<  After our recent group reading it became clear  
to me that the co-ordinates in the book-time and place, locations and  
occupations-pointed to MKULTRA and ... >>

Are you saying you'd never given MKULTRA a second thought before?

<< Inherent Vice is very much in that vein and if it is a darker book than the  
already dark CoL49 it is because it is noting the time that followed  
multiple cultural cataclysms. >>

Hmmm. I dunno if I'd really call IV a 'darker' book than COL49. IV doesn't seem that dark to me. Sure, it points to all sorts of historical, political, and societal matters which can be viewed as pretty bleak, as is the nature of these things. But the book itself is quite light-hearted, I reckon. Shot through with dark humour, yes, but not overall what you could call a negative or 'dark' piece of work.