Comparative Lit (pynchon etc.)

[Jeffrey K. Carney]

>BTW, is it general knowledge that Pynchon has "disowned" _Lot 49_?

He did after all suggest in his intro to _Slow Learner_ that he seemed to
have forgotten everything he had learned about writing when he wrote it. 
BUT perhaps this is a good thing? a way of flaunting convention even more
overtly than ever?  And of course, it's curious that he would publish a
collection of stories at the same time he sort of knocks them.

On the other hand, I'm with you.  The Lot is good in the same way the 3
stooges are good: superficial slapstick, though with some amusing social
commentary along the way.  V. seems more mature: not just a cursory lampoon
but a deeply meditative investigation of our most brooding questions. 
Benny Profane is not just funny, but human; Stencil, less human, is almost
mythopoeic.  His quest, like Odysseus's, suggests all quests, yet viewed in
such a way that we wonder, as Homer seems not to, what quests are all
about, and what meaning they could possibly have in a world where myth
seems as obsolete as a copper penny.

GR, well, it's great but irritating, suffering from the same
self-indulgence that plagues so much of Joyce's work, though perhaps
redeemed by its broader social themes, which must be considered in the
context of the age in which he wrote it.  I still haven't made up my mind.

JEFF