Chabon on BE

[Thomas Eckhardt]

Sorry, I misattributed the quote to Marge. The passage is Ernie's on 
pages 419 to 420. Please disregard everything I said about Chabon's take 
on Marge.

I hate it when that happens...

My argument still stands, though. To clarify:

Obviously, we need to differentiate between what we believe about the 
world and what we, based on our understanding of the text, believe the 
author believes. We usually want the author to believe what we believe, 
and I am no exception. The crucial questions are: Which beliefs are 
supported by the facts? Which reading is supported by the text?

The historical facts, as Monte has thankfully pointed out, are against 
Chabon here. More importantly, for our purposes, his reading of the 
passage in question is, as far as I can see, not supported by the text. 
In essence, Chabon claims that Ernie's internet history and his 
prediction for the future is presented to us by the author as a 
"baseless canard." This is a grave misreading. Ernie's view is presented 
as a perfectly legitimate view -- at least as legitimate as Maxine's. 
And Ernie has the facts on his side.

All this does not mean that Pynchon necessarily endorses Ernie's view. 
For example, what Ernie makes of his facts, how *he* reads them, old 
lefty liberal that he is, is indeed a different matter. Does the 
internet carry "a bitter-cold death wish for the planet in its heart"? I 
don't think so...

And to repeat: I believe that the continuity of cold war covert 
operations and projects through 9/11 to the present is an important 
theme of BE.

Thomas


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