Eco vs Pynchon

[Craig Clark]

Henry Musikar <gravity at dcez.nicom.com> writes:

> This has begun to make me think of the Rossini vs. Webern argument in 
> GR. Yes, Eco "does something intelligent," but is intelligence all 
> that we admire/enjoy in a writer. I/was Brando an "intelligent" 
> actor?

On the Brando question I'll just simply say "Yes" and leave it at 
that, but I think Henry's other question - "is intelligence all that we 
admire/enjoy in a writer?" - deserves a better answer.

Obviously it is not. I dare say there are a number of highly 
intelligent writers of schlock out there whose work I wouldn't 
normally bother reading. But I believe a case can be made for Eco 
going a step beyond being merely "an intelligent writer" to what one 
might call "writing with intelligence". To take just one example from 
what I still believe to be his finest work: The year before I read 
_The Name of the Rose_ I had occasion to spend three months doing 
research into medieval allegorical convention. Inter alia I found 
myself investigating the way medieval authors would read a Christian
allegory into non-allegorical and pre-Christian texts such as the 
_Odyssey_. Armed with that body of knowledge I was delighted to 
discover that Eco was writing a non-Christian and non-Allegorical 
text which could also be read as a Christian allegory: and which is, 
dammit, largely concerned with medieval ideas about the reading and 
deciphering of texts.

I suppose what it comes down to is that I respect and enjoy any 
author who not only is intelligent but who also assumes that I am 
intelligent too: intelligent enough to work hard at a text of many 
levels and enjoy the task. It's why I think Stephen Sondheim is a 
brilliant creator of stage musicals whereas I think Andrew Lloyd-Webber
sucks: the former assumes I'm intelligent enough to appreciate a 
kabuki musical about American cultural and economic imperialism in 
Japan in the last century, intended as a critique of the Vietnam war, 
whereas the latter assumes I want to see some nice dancing and hear 
some pretty tunes.

I think this is true of Eco. He does expect me to have the 
intelligence to pick up the subtle academic jokes in the text. In 
addition, he writes passably well (or rather, his translator renders 
him in passable prose). He is nowhere near as brilliant a writer as 
TRP, or even as Salman Rushdie (and having just read _The Moor's last 
Sigh_, let me say that I found it an almost exhiliratingly 
beautifully written book). But he's definitely not the worst writer 
around either.


Craig Clark

"Living inside the system is like driving across
the countryside in a bus driven by a maniac bent
on suicide."
   - Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"