alice wellintown part 2

[Joseph Tracy]

I have been diverted from the reading for a couple hours by trying to  
understand in some reasonable way  alice wellintown's role in  and  
additions/subtractions to the p-list.  Perhaps a futile enterprise. I  
suggested aw was functioning as a troll , arguing with all, sniping  
at everyone, demanding attention by declaring everyone  to be off as  
regards TP. Also says she is married to a stockbroker and is lit prof  
or philosophy prof who teaches P. She said she argued years ago about  
a topic on the list, but her current name only goes back a a few  
months or less. Read some archives and she sounds a lot like a  
person  called Terrance Flaherty. Lots of reference to philosophy,  
lots of reference to Pynchon lit criticism., knowledgeable about  
religious history , defensive of Catholicism( haven't noticed that in  
aw), rarely risks a positive assertion, celebrates academic combat.  
aw seems more poetic than Terrance, but the persona of both these  
people is a little unstable. Hey, who isn't?

I suggested that she doesn't have a teaching position, but who knows.  
I wish aw would be more respectful , more friendly and more willing  
to put forth  positive assertions, tentative proposals, smart aleck  
comments, something other than combative and often bombastic  
critiques. I would like to see her accept that other readers have  
intelligent approaches to the writing of TP.  But perhaps the call  
for nonresponsiveness was too harsh, too undemocratic for the spirit  
of the list. And , of course , everyone will act according to their  
own inclination anyway. My early take on aw was an underestimate of  
her language skills and intelligence, I still find her comments to be  
erratic and inconsistent, but shot through with streaks of poetic and  
logical brilliance.

Haven't gone too far in the the world of letters, have a minor in  
English and taught high school English for 4 years before going back  
to glass art and conservation.  So my take on Pynchon , while  
informed by some measure of reading critics and interpreters is  
basically my own, and all that has shaped my view of the world and  
the arts by which we survive.