out from the shadows...

[Thomas N. Dennis]

----------
From: 	Paul Mackin[SMTP:mackin at allware.com]
Sent: 	Sunday, January 28, 1996 5:45 AM
To: 	pynchon-l at sfu.ca
Subject: 	Re: out from the shadows...



On Sat, 27 Jan 1996, Christopher James Tassava wrote:

>=20
> 	What are the basis of these negative reviews of Pynchon's work? =20
> Do they go after Tom's style, his substance, his "message", or what?  =
Any=20
> insights and/or directions to the critical criticism would be greatly=20
> appreciated.


GR is criticized as belonging to that category of writing known as=20
the university novel--books written not to be read but to be taught. =
Many=20
otherwise literate people find GR too murky to undertake without, say,=20
the GR Companion. Gore Vidal is one famous exponent of this theory.=20

Additionally, Vidal doesn't like Pynchon's prose. "To my ear,
the prose is pretty bad, full of all the rattle and buzz that were in =
the=20
air when the author was growing up, an era in which only the television
commercial was demonically  acquiring energy, leaked to it by a =
declining
Western civilization. . . rattles on and on, broken by occasional =
lengthy=20
songs every bit as bad, lyrically, as those of Bob Dylan."

Vidal doesn't much like the message either, particularly as it is
reflected in the von Braun epigram. "Braun believes 'in the continuity =
of=20
our spiritual existence after death'. . . This quasi-Hindu sentiment is=20
beguiling and conforting . . . Personally, I find it somber indeed to=20
think that individual personality goes on and on beyond zero, time. But
I am in the minority: this generation of Americans is god-hungry and=20
craves reassurance of personal immortality. . . "

The next sentence get a little nasty and, since it was written twenty
years ago and may not reflect current thinking, I won't repeat it.

Vidal has one thing (he considers) nice to say about P. ". . . one can=20
applaud his deliberate ascent from Academe . . . " Reference to
the fact that P does not teach in a university.

Here is plainly _one_ V Stencil is not in search of.=20

The above comes from NY Review of Books, July 15, 1976.

The lines so daintily omitted are, for me, quite interesting...do they =
not have to do with a statement somewhat along this line (tho' inexact): =
"...comparing Pynchon to Joyce is like comparing a small school-kid to a =
graduate student..."=20

As if children can teach us nothing, while the frazzled M.A. candidate =
can?=20

It's interesting to see Pynchon's songs compared to Dylan's also--I =
believe Zimmie should have taken that as a compliment.

Thomas N. Dennis