Difficulty of TRP (was GIANT ADENOID for lease)

LBernier at tribune.com LBernier at tribune.com
Tue Oct 1 09:15:02 CDT 1996


     
     Ted a dit:
     
     This is not Pynchon, but an acquaintance who is a would-be 
     female journalist of the feminist persuasion told me that 
     she'd rather read Gloria Steinem than Camille Paglia, 
     because CP uses "words she doesn't understand".
     
     So there!
     
Gee, what she's never heard the word p-penis?!?

Seriously, I think women have a much harder time with Pynchon
than men.  There's a lack of seriousness in a lot of his writing that is
antithical (sp?) to "good" writing theory, more so to "women's" writing
and especially to "WOMYN'S" writing.  You've got all the themes you see in
a lot of modern day books - hints of incest, child sexual exploitation, 
homosexuality, violence, but I think a lot of people, especially in these
neo-puritan days, find the WAY it deals with those topics pretty darn
offensive.  If you don't convey the proper dourness and disapproval of
behaviour outside the currently defined model for properness, 7 kinds of 
hell will come down on your head.

So I don't know what that makes us gals on the list who love Pynchon.  
I guess we'll never get to be a part of the feminist elite! (Drat!)

Jean



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