rubrics (I like that word), wrecking crews and hugfests

[Carvill, John]

Yeah, 'rubric' is a cool word.

Since you didn't quote any text in your email, I dunno who you're responding to. But for my part, I certainly didn't mean to flame Robin, or even argue with him. Yep, I sometimes get tired of hearing him repeat  'Chandler...Chandler...Chandler', like some sort of mantra. And yes, he mentions a lot of interesting stuff; what sometimes gets under my skin is the extent to which he (a) mentions it relentlessly (see Chandler/Nick Danger/CIA/etc.), and (b) seems convinced, a la Hollander, that he has discerned some hidden purpose of Pynchon's. I would also note that, while some of Hollander's stuff often seems, to me, to be stretching a fair bit, at least he has thought his theories through, in depth. And when Hollander emailed this list a while back, he got virtually no response, yet people seem to swallow a lot of Robin's theories whole. 

I wouldn't go so far as Monte, who suggests the p-list is turning into the White Visitation, but you can see why he might say that.

And I don't think it's really..what's the word...not 'fair', but something like that...um, I don't think it's realistic to just way, "if you don't like someone's posts just delete them"; I think we all have a right to comment, even when we're not in agreement with what we're commenting on. To repeat: I wasn't having a go at Robin, or totally discounting what he has to say.

There are half a dozen other points I could make, but I think I've been negative enough for one day. Maybe even two days, who can say.