Intentions, VL and barefoot (again)

[Ronkarate at aol.com]

A recent post to the list (and I deleted the gol-durned thing, so I don't
have the poster's name or exact quote) said something along the lines that
Pynchon's sense of humor was evidence against him having any lofty artistic
ambitions in relation to his anonimity. 

I think this misses the mark. The question of Pynchon's intentions is
irrelevant, IMO. When I said, in an earlier post, that his near-invisibility
caused his works to be "pure" art, I made no claim that I thought this was
his point, only that this was an inevitable result. 

I've just finished _VL_, just this minute, and I have to say the last chapter
completely reversed my initial impressions of the book. It did, in the end,
tickle my fancy. Sister Rochelle's story about Hell and Earth was incredible,
and the moment where Elmhurst says "Y-You mean...life _isn't_ Vegas?" was
hilarious. 

One more completely random comment, this time about BAREFOOT IN THE HEAD once
again: okay, so we've established that B. Coley, not Pynchon, wrote the liner
notes. But I just realized yet another allusion to Pynchon on the record. One
of the songs is entitled "On the Phrase 'Ass Backwards'". (The other titles
are "All Doors Look Alike", "Tanned Moon", The Date-Reduced Loaf" and
"Concerning the Sun As A Cool Solid." If any of these are Pynchon references,
they have escaped my somewhat limited storage faculties. Please notify me if
you can illuminate further.)

-Ron Dulin
Ronkarate at aol.com
RDULIN at delphi.com