GR Review--Still Boo, but less so

[MASCARO at humnet.ucla.edu]

From:          Self <MASCARO>
To:            pynchon-l at sfu.ca
Subject:       Re: GR Review--Still Boo, but less so
Date:          Thu, 25 Apr 1996 10:43:24

Murthy and I have been talking about this old SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN rev. of GR:

>I too think we mostly agree, Murthy, though I still think you are torturing the 
>phrase--pay in spiritual coin--to escape what seems to me the inescapable 
>implication that one does indeed have less of whatever it was oner paid after one 
>pays.  I don't think reading--pay--as--pay attention is justified here.  But I do 
>concur 
>w/ your analysis of the balance bet. warmth and chill; you are right, I'm 
>a--warmth 
>seeker, and capable of denying the undeniable chill factor.
>
>john m
>
>
>>In a previous message MASCARO at humnet.ucla.edu writes:
>>> (1) I think you have to distort the meaning of the phrase--pay in
>>> spiritual coin--to see it as a compliment.  Since when
>>> does--paying--mean--investing?  You are saying that the book enriches
>>> us spiritually.  I agree.  However, it seems that Morrison is saying
>>> the book actually entails a spiritual impovershment.  Not the same
>>> thing at all, is it now?
>>
>>I don't think 'pay in spiritual coin' means you have fewer 'spiritual
>>coins' as a result. I think of it as something like 'pay attention' - to
>>pay is not necessarily the same thing as to give away something you
>>own. So I read it as saying that unless you 'pay in spiritual coin'
>>(that is, pay attention to the spiritual qualities), you're not getting
>>the essence of the book. This could be a hint to the 'hard science'
>>fans who might read it only for the cool science metaphors to pay
>>attention to the other qualities of the book.
>>
>>> (2)  Coldness and brilliance have nothing to do w/ comedy.  The
>>> reviewer, again, clearly sees this--chill--as a deficiency ("But be
>>> warned," he intones).  I don't see that meta-chill.  Yes there are
>>> chilling things a-plenty in the novel (in all of his novels), but the
>>> overall movement, to me, is to establish a genuine, we might even say
>>> warm, human community w/in this chilled world.  After all, it ends w/
>>> the word--everybody!!
>>
>>"But be warned" is unfortunate :-) - I'm all for not warning people
>>about the great qualities of the book. Despite the "genuine, warm, human
>>community", I do sense the meta-chill (and like it all the more for it).
>>I think one of the reasons why GR is great is that fine balance between
>>warmth and chill. So yeah, too bad that Morrison stressed only the
>>coldness and not the warmth. But you know, when they are so finely
>>balanced, there are always going to be people who are more affected by
>>the warmth as there are people who are more affected by the chill. May
>>be Morrison falls in the second camp (as I do?). But I don't think his
>>mention of the "cold brilliance" implies his seeing it as a deficiency.
>>
>>> I go on about this because it does seem that TRP still has this rep.
>>> for a detached, cold, intellectually brilliant but spritually
>>> questionable vision; Murthy's comments reinforce that conclusion.
>>
>>"Spritually questionable?" Who thinks this? None of the people I know
>>who've read his books do (but I haven't read any academic criticism of
>>his work). May be some confuse the coolness of the writing with
>>spiritual/emotional detachment - if they do, I wouldn't pay too much
>>attention to their criticism of TP - clearly they don't know what they
>>are talking about.
>>
>>> I am
>>> just wondering how anybody can take these judgments away from a really
>>> engaged reading of his work.
>>
>>Looks like we mostly agree, except maybe in our estimation of how
>>cold/warm his writing is.
>>
>>Murthy
>>
>>-- 
>>Murthy Yenamandra, Dept of CompSci, U of Minnesota. Email: 
>>yenamand at cs.umn.edu
>>   "I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the
>>    swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the
>>    wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour  
>>    to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all ..."
>>