The Tale of Tyrone's dick

[David Casseres]

Jan Klimkowski sez
>Actually, for me the Tale of Tyrone's Dick is closer to the Garcia   
>Marquez of 100 Years of Solitude, than it is to Coover and Barth.   

Bingo!

> Indeed, I think Barth in particular is not writing about "the real   
>world", and I think there are major differences in the projects of   
>Pynchon and Barth.  To express it crudely, I think Barth is essentially   
>writing self-referential pomo texts which have very little to do with   
>"reality" as you express it above.  Whereas part of Pynchon's project,   
>like Garcia Marquez', does involve taking real historical material and   
>reflecting it thru the prism of art.

Barth (whom I dearly love to read) writes mostly about writing, and 
secondarily he writes rather sweet autobiographical love-stories.  I'm 
always astonished when anyone links him with Pynchon -- they are almost 
diametrical opposites.

Pynchon and Garcia Marquez, now there's a pair.  And perhaps your 
formulation of "taking real historical material and reflecting it thru 
the prism of art" comes near to a definition of Remembrance, which is 
perhaps what both of them are trying to write.  Pynchon also sez that 
"Remembrance belongs to the People," something Garcia Marquez might 
easily have said himself.



Cheers,
David