Ig Nobels

[Mark Kohut]

One of TRPynchon's major human values is, what-to-call-it, face to faceness? Looking the other in the eye honestly?  

(Yu'all may remember Katje refusing to "surrender her face" in GR?)

On the political level---I am NOT EQUATING the two, just analogizing---Obama was honored for unilaterally, unconditionally extending a hand not a fist and offering to talk face-to-face...........thereby changing the atmospherics of the geopolitical world........................

That's one perspective I have on the award.

Mark

--- On Sun, 10/11/09, Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net> wrote:

> From: Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
> Subject: Re: Ig Nobels
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Sunday, October 11, 2009, 1:00 PM
> On Oct 11, 2009, at 9:29 AM, alice
> wellintown wrote:
> 
> > Or maybe to Tank Man, who stood in front of the
> Chinese tanks, but
> > that might prove impossible. Where is Tank Man?
> Obviously the Nobel
> > folks recognize that the world is faced with several
> huge and pressing
> > problems and have elected to focus on a handful
> including the Nuclear
> > Arms crisis. I applaud them for doing so and believe
> they made the
> > right choice. Hope is a powerful counter-force and the
> current
> > President of the US has given more of it to more
> people than anyone
> > else in recent memory. I too have reservations about
> the cult status
> > of the President and his misguided decisions
> concerning the Military
> > Camps in Colombia, the incarceration of people who
> have not been
> > charged with crimes, the wars or war or whatever it is
> that he is
> > running, his failure to act on the Wall Street &
> Real Estate debacle,
> > his staff and cabinet appointments, his failings in
> the Middle East,
> > his goof ups on race and class politics, but he has
> obviously inspired
> > a nation that was in dire need of inspiration and he
> has turned the
> > tide the black tide of Bush in a new direction that
> has some people
> > talking who were not and some people backing off from
> extreme
> > positions. A Giant Step for Mankind. A Giant Step.
> 
> Better is better and Bush was/is the black hole of Crawford
> Texas.
> 
> Katrina was a near miss—I say Gaia was aiming for a spot
> a bit north and east of New Orleans but you know how these
> things can get out of hand—sister Eris always has a trick
> up her sleve.
> 
> So yeah, at least as a figurehead/"Official" head of state
> Obama is a quantum leap above his predecessor and his call
> for nuclear disarmament at this juncture of time is worthy
> of a Nobel prize all by Its lonesome.
> 
> Too bad the big show's still run by Bushco.
>