Required Reading

[Henry M]

I like what Chris has to say here. Pynchon does invite over-analysis 
and over-interpretation than most authors.  Who else comes to mind? 
Sure, Joyce is an easy target, but his language particularly asks for 
extreme interpretation.

HDM

On  5 Dec 96 at 19:02, ckaratnytsky at nypl.org wrote:

> Date:          Thu, 5 Dec 1996 19:02:19 -0500
> From:          ckaratnytsky at nypl.org
> Subject:       required reading
> To:            pynchon-l at waste.org

>      Apropos of the recent NY Magazine article and the possible
>      barrage of TRP-related publicity and consequent late-night
>      pig-wrestling on Letterman associated with the pub of M&D
>      (hello, Murthy!), my fellow listees may be interested to read
>      Amy Tan's article in the December Harper's, reprinted from the
>      fall Threepenny Review.
> 
>      The article, entitled "Required Reading and Other Dangerous
>      Subjects" speaks to the issues authors (you know, as people)
>      face when they become "canonized" or otherwise made grist for
>      the, dare I say, grad student thesis, literary fan and, even,
>      gah, listserv mill.  Tan writes amusingly about reading a
>      master's thesis, a miracle of "literary sleuthing" which cites
>      the symbolic use of the number four in The Joy Luck Club and
>      goes on to "reveal a mystical and rather Byzantine puzzle,
>      which, once explained, proved to be completely brilliant and
>      precisely logical.  [The student] wrote me a letter and asked
>      if her analysis had been correct.  How I long to say
>      'absolutely.'  The truth is, if there are symbols in my work
>      they exist largely by accident or through someone else's
>      interpretive design....  To plant symbols like that, you need a
>      plan, good organizational skills, and a precise understanding
>      of the story you are about to write.  Sadly, I lack those
>      traits."
> 
>      With regard to our friend TRP, I would say, natch, that he
>      *doesn't* lack those traits, that he *does* have a plan, good
>      organizational skills, etc. etc.  But I would venture to guess
>      that serendipity, synchronicity and chance all play larger
>      roles in his writings than we, the adoring public, think they
>      do.  Don't they, eh, Mr. P., sir?  I think the marvelous
>      confluence between the word and the plan and the angel of
>      randomness is the big bang that creates works of genius. 
>      (Remember the famous story about Beckett transcribing a door
>      slam into the mss. of Finnegan's Wake, was it, for our boy
>      James?  Check me on this, Joyce-l lurkers.)  
> 
>      I think that TRP must be gettin' quite a chuckle now and then
>      from stuff like our microscopic meanderings through the GRGR.  
>         
> 
>      Well, either that, or one royal headache.
> 
>      Chris
> 
> 

Keep cool, but care. -- TRP
Aw, what the heck: go bananas. -- HDM

http://www.nicom.com/~gravity