Rushdie on Eco and Pynchon

[Paul Kedrosky]

I'm no Eco-file, and I think Salman Rushdie did the best job I've seen of
deflating the big man's babbling in his 1989 NYT review of "Foucault's
Pendulum." 

First, from the review, here's Rushdie on Pynchon:

"The only writer who ever managed to transmute the base metal of the 
illuminatus-novel into art was Thomas Pynchon ... What gave Pynchon the edge 
over all the other cabalistic babblers was that he was funny, he could create 
vivid, belching, hilariously unstrung characters, and that his awarenesss of 
genuinely suppressed histories ... always informed his treatment of even the 
most lunatic fictional conspiracies."

Now some random comments on Eco from the same review:

"It's just possible that inside this whale, there's an enjoyable smaller fish 
trying to get out ... there are moments when the ponderous narrative sparks 
into life. But the spark is instantly snuffed out by page after page of Higher 
Bullshit."

He concludes:

"Unfortunately, [the book] is so turgid that it's impossible care about
reaching [the end]. This is Spielbergery without the action or bullwhips, and
if, as Anthony Burgess threatens on the jacket, 'this is the way the the
European novel is going,' we should all catch a bus in the opposite direction
as soon as possible." 

Paul
pkedrosk at sms.ivey.uwo.ca