encore! 5 most underrated? and, er, overrated?

[Mark.Novitz at ny.ubs.com]

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: PUBLIC: encore! 5 most underrated? and, er, overrated?
Author:  owner-pynchon-l at nyux/DD.RFC-822=owner-pynchon-l at waste.org
Date:    2/10/97 11:43 PM

Overrated

2.Anything by Charles Bukowski (no qualifying explanations needed)

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     Bukowski's writing is far from "great"--but it stands on it's own for 
     blunt brutish honesty and as poetic prose and erse for the everyman.
     
     I love lists (because they offer me direction on where to go next), 
     but I agree with the DeLillo statement published elsewhere on this 
     list--it's a form of hysteria.
     
     Ask me, and I'd say that you can't start throwing around names like 
     Joyce and Shakes, and even McKenna, and throw Bukowski into the 
     fray...there's a lot of other great books, books considered 
     "elementary" (i.e. Wiesel's "Night") that are unbelievably powerful 
     reads, but just aren't of the caliber that Pynchonites are going to 
     put on any list.
     
     Bukowski's in that place...often powerful in honesty and brutality but 
     nothing exemplary in form or style...not as clever as folks on this 
     list demand.
     
     I'm a Buk fan, yes, but my effort is not to really defend him...my 
     effort is to make everyone aware of what this list hysteria can do...
     
     /mark/
     /nyc/