Text of COL49

[Carvill, John]

> How is this legal?  Is this not ripping off ***?

Who said it was legal? I bet you've done some illegal things in your time eh? I bet you even inhaled.

I guess it would be ripping Pynchon off if you downloaded this instead of buying his book. Then again, if you already own all his books, and most of 'em multiple times, then I don't see an ethical problem in acquiring the e-text, if it's of some use to you. Of course, what it's most likely to be useful for is performing text searches on, which you can probably do via Amazon, Google books, etc. Surely nobody is going to download COL49 and read it electronically, unless they're not in a financial position to buy a copy of the book, in which case you'd maybe almost guess that Pynchon might approve.

An interesting article/book review from last weekend's papers, on the whole etext/ereader/future of books debate:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/nov/15/case-for-books-robert-darnton

" In his final essay, Darnton remarks that "reading remains mysterious", despite the burgeoning debates surrounding the production, preservation and interpretation of texts. The practice of reading shifts in every generation. No commercial or political process has yet succeeded in controlling its evolution and nothing suggests that its unruly energies are likely to diminish in a digital world."