the Merle center

[bandwraith at aol.com]

Merle is an American tinker. He creates by
bricolage. He's like Edison but less malign, and
on a much smaller scale. He forms a counter-
weight to the inspired but somewhat misguided
romaticism of Tesla. Merle befriends ball
lightening and shares time and space with it.
Tesla wants to rule the heavens, and is easily
co-opted.

Merle lives a decentralized existence, off the grid.




-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
To: P-list <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tue, Feb 28, 2012 8:42 pm
Subject: Re: the Merle center


In sum, Merle is the person in the novel whom I would most like to be.
(which is yet another stipulation for moral center that seems relevant
 To borrow from George Clinton (a more pleasant prospect), he's an
Atomic Dog, he gets up for the downstroke, he gets on the good foot...