American Culture

[will.miller.ace at artsfb.org.uk]

It appears Mendelson hasn't heard of 'Finnegans Wake' ??? - now there's an 
encyclopedia. Thousands of international placenames, hundreds of 
international river names, 1000s of historical figures, all the important 
texts in international (ancient and modern) culture, some 66 different 
languages - I could go on... but alack I feel weary at the thought of the 
project...
 ----------
From: crw4 at NIP1.EM.CDC.GOV
To: pynchon-l <pynchon-l at waste.org; ARTSFBS/ACE/WMILLER
Subject: Re: American Culture
Date: 26 May 1996 00:06



Hartwin Alfred Gebhardt sez:

"At his best, [TRP is] not an American author at all, but a world author."

Yes -- and in his excellent essay "Gravity's Encyclopedia" ( in _Mindful
Pleasures_), Edward Mendelson identifies _GR_ as the international
encyclopedic narrative (only one allowed per nation or culture, and _Moby
Dick_ is already the USA's).  (According to Mendelson, an encyclopedic
narrative appears "near the beginning of a culture's or a nation's sense of
its own separate existence.")  This implies the advent of an international
culture and TRP, I guess, as its spokesman or encyclopedist.

     Skip Wolfe
     crw4 at nip1.em.cdc.gov