DFW defense

[ChrisO at fieldschool.com]

Date	6/6/96
Subject	DFW defense
>From	ChrisO
To	ChrisO, Pynchon List

DFW defense
Steely wrote:

..Rushdie himself, whose incredible The Moor's Last Sigh has received nary a
mention on this list--passed over, I guess, in favor of all the hype about that
awful pretender DF Wallace...

Well, Daddy said you shouldn't shit where you eat, but here goes:

What exactly is David Foster Wallace pretending to be?

IMHO, comparisons between TP and DFW can be drawn on three points only:

-They both wrote big old books;
-with complicated plots;
-that mixed big words and slang into the same verbal margarita.

And beyond the dustcover hype, that's about it. I don't think DFW has even gone
on record as a Pynchon fan at all, has he? Infinite Jest's characters are drawn
with a compassion that seems a total counterpoint to the chilly, arms-length
handling of Slothrop et al. IJ invents a goofy future, pretty completely - none
of the grousing about "the math not working" has pointed up that invention and
spark - while Pynchon chooses to find the otherworldly in history's trenches.
And DFW moves chameleon-like through different voices, while the more asceptic
and constant voice of TP's omniscient 3rd person is inflexible in its distance,
no? DFW is sloppy and yeasty and fecund; Pynchon leaves a much drier taste.
  Now, I don't wanna play "my author can beat up your author." They're both
formidable. But I recommend a re-evaluation of the taken-for-granted comparison
- I just don't think it fits as well as we thought it did before IJ. Anyone?

Chris O.