CoL49 - Echo & Narcissus

[Joseph Tracy]

It certainly a legitimate question Morris brings up. My thoughts on it go beyond the Echo and  Narcissus metaphor, but I think they show how deranged a Narcissistic world view can go in separating the Narcissist from human connection.

We think of postal systems as personal letters, private and of little interest to anyone but the sender and receiver. But postal systems are also the precursor of news distribution; the more societies moved to written communication like legal codes, ledgers, books, couriers, the more authoritative signed written documents are. A state is largely a system of authoritative  communication.   Organizing opposition to the legitimacy of a ruler or system  often involves  using mail that is truly private or creating an alternate communication system and authority structure, or publicly publishing a dissenting idea.    News media that primarily serve state interests, (which are usually married to commercial interests)are in effect  letters informing citizens what the concerns , decisions and goals of the state are and what the  parameters of social behavior and thought are. I see the media and  postal wars we find in COL 49 , which in Bortz’s exposition have a politically charged history, as an excellent disguised metaphor for the media wars which the CIA kicked into high gear in the 50s and 60s, and which the fascists had used to powerful effect in their propaganda.  When the secret communication system is also an assassination service, watch out. 

> On Jun 30, 2024, at 9:35 AM, J K Van Nort via Pynchon-l <pynchon-l at waste.org> wrote:
> 
> David sez:
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>> Continuing the  information loop metaphor:
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>> The postal service is a Communication system.  It is an information infrastructure. As far as I can tell, it does not control the content of communication.  It is also a public utility available to all.  So it’s a bit hard to say how it might fit into the echo chamber myth
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> The way that W.A.S.T.E. is described by Fallopian as a closed information loop that keeps going by people writing to each other to say nothing.

Not sure he is calling his PPS mail service W.A.S.T.E.?  Do you have a page reference?   Though this is an amusing way of describing what he is doing, and what many closed info loops do. 
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> Echo continues to provide the heroin to Narcissus. She's there to keep him believing that he's as desirable as he thinks he is. Oedipa is breaking free from that closed loop as she continues her search and moves past all the men who see her only as confirmation of their desirability. 
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> As bell hooks has pointed out, some of the most viral promoters of patriarchy are women.
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> In solidarity,
> James
> 
> Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
> --
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