What can reading Pynchon teach us about the internet?

[Monte Davis]

I'm not l persuaded that the "validating bubble" effects of social media
are different from what I've done all my life in selecting what I read,
whom I befriend, and where I spend leisure time.

On Fri, Dec 16, 2016 at 5:32 AM, kelber at mindspring.com <
kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:

> Pynchon's books provide the perfect tools for navigating the internet:
> look for the excluded middle; parse and parse again; knot into, but go off
> on wild, thought-provoking tangents; and be very conscious that what you
> see is what "they" want you to see. Ask questions, be very paranoid.
>
> But just as his books have been criticized for flat characters and lack of
> psychological depth, he doesn't offer much to combat the current problem of
> the self-curated internet that all of us -- right-wing dimwits as well as
> those who fancy ourselves enlightened -- succumb to. We're human, and we
> need validation -- of our views, our culture, our idiosyncrasies, and the
> greatest thrill of all: being part of the "right-minded" group. And what
> better place to find it than in our very own carefully-curated internet
> bubble.
>
> Oh, sure, we can all be responsible and analytical for (increasingly)
> short spells. But all too soon we go for the cheap validations of retweets
> and Facebook likes, because they feel so damn good. Pynchon offers naught
> to steer us away from these irrational retreats.
>
> Laura
>
> *Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE DROID*
>
>
> Becky Lindroos <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
> On Dec 14, 2016, at 10:54 PM, Lemuel Underwing <luunderwing at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > Or what has it taught you?
>
> Overall?   - with quotes which might be related to the internet in some
> way:
> Quote bites:    “As above,  so below.”   “Single up all the lines” because
> “they are all connected.”       “Fly toward Grace,”  anyway.
>
>
> More specifically:
>
> V.  -   me:  There’s a whole sick crew out there in cyberspace -  (really
> sick)
>
> Quote:
> “To have humanism we must first be convinced of our humanity. As we move
> further into decadence this becomes more difficult.”
>
> **
>
> The Crying of Lot 49 - me:    ways of communication - lots of ways to get
> your mail -
>
> Quote:
> “Shall I project a world?”
>
> **
>
> Gravity’s Rainbow -  me:  get past the borders - into the some new
> frontier - being transported
>
> Quotes:
> “A screaming comes across the sky.”   (across the screen?)
>
> “So generation after generation of men in love with pain and passivity
> serve out their time in the Zone, silent, redolent of faded sperm,
> terrified of dying, desperately addicted to the comforts others sell them,
> however useless, ugly or shallow, willing to have life defined for them by
> men whose only talent is for death.”
>
> "'Temporal bandwidth,' is the width of your present, your now. It is the
> familiar "∆ t" considered as a dependent variable. The more you dwell in
> the past and in the future, the thicker your bandwidth, the more solid your
> persona. But the narrower your sense of Now, the more tenuous you are.”
> **
>
> Vineland -  they are out to get you - head for the hills and keep your
> Social Security in order.
>
> Quote:
> “The smartest kid Justin ever met, back in kindergarten, had told him to
> pretend his parents were characters in a television sitcom. 'Pretend
> there's a frame around 'em like the Tube, pretend they're a show you're
> watching. You can go into it if you want, or you can just watch and not go
> into it.”
>
> **
> Mason & Dixon -
>
> Quotes:
> "As above,  so below.”   “...the heavens and the earth ... [are] reserved
> unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”
> unending search for grace,  even unto the ends of the internet.
>
> “To rule forever," continues the Chinaman, later, "it is necessary only to
> create, among the people one would rule, what we call...Bad History.
> Nothing will produce Bad History more directly nor brutally, than drawing a
> Line, in particular a Right Line, the very Shape of Contempt, through the
> midst of a People,-- to create thus a Distinction betwixt 'em,-- 'tis the
> first stroke.-- All else will follow as if predestin'd, unto War and
> Devastation.”
>
> **
>
> Against the Day -
>
> Quotes:    “…now single up all lines!”
>
> "But a few choosing to venture deeper into the painful corridors of their
> affliction (the internet) , found after a while that they could now grind
> and polish ever more exotic surfaces, hyperboloidial and even stranger,
> eventually including what we must term ‘imaginary’ shapes (which some
> preferred to term invisible).”
>
>
> **
> Inherent Vice -  the dark side is always present  -  it’s all unstable -
> everyone is nuts or doped out or both - lost in a fog of dreams -
>
> Quote:
> “People in this town saw only what they'd all agreed to see, they believed
> what was on the tube or in the morning papers half of them read while they
> were driving to work on the freeway, and it was all their dream about being
> wised up, about the truth setting them free.”
>
> **
> Bleeding Edge -  yup -  it’s all connected (So see if you can "single up
> all the lines” (networks - clues - ?? ) and find more bad guys as you go
> deeper and deeper.    There’s a dark underside to everything - networks of
> power and government and so on - they’re all connected and the whole is
> never completely seen - always a mystery in it -
>
> Quote:
> "Paranoia's the garlic in life's kitchen, right, you can never have too
> much.”
>
> Becky
> that was pretty fun -
>
>
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>
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