GRGR1 - Giant Adenoid

[Wolfe, Skip]

>But I think there's a deeper level of difficulty and that resides in
>TRP's textual innovations, which are arguably more radical than those
>of _Ulysses_      .     .     .     Undoubtedly the history of 20th Century 
fiction has been about
>breaking down these preconceptions, but TRP takes it further - I
>believe MUCH further - than anyone else. We're not used to reading
>texts that take this form, therefore we find _GR_ difficult.
>Craig Clark


I second everything Craig says.  In addition, there's Pynchon's habit of 
tossing the reader into the middle of a scene without a key, so to speak, 
explaining where (s)he is or why.  This can be disconcerting to first-time 
readers.  One gets used to it, but I think lots of readers give up before 
that can happen -- at least the readers I've tried to steer his way.

Interestingly, I don't think Pynchon engages in obfuscation for its own sake 
(something I don't think we can say of all contemporary writers).  On the 
other hand, I think he tries to be as clear as possible, given what he's 
trying to do.  He could easily drop a name -- Kekule, say -- and leave it to 
the reader to figure out why it's there; but he will often spend whole pages 
giving details on references and explaining how they relate to the passage 
where they're inserted.  O-or is he just giving us more chaos to try to make 
order out of . . .

     Skip