Gore's rosebud

[Niall Martin]

At 08:21 27-02-97 +0000, you wrote:

>I can recall seeing Vidal invoked as one of TRP's harshest critics--This 
>misrepresents Vidal's position--I think that he is simply hesitant 
>about/exploring some points about/reflecting upon  a trend in the American
Novel 
>that he sees as already played out--certainly, even if I don't agree with this 
>point concerning _GR_, I find Vidal's qualified praise stimulating--especially 
>in light of Vidal's comment that he doubts if anyone can ever really finish 
>_GR_--we have finished it more than once, but if we forget that initial
feeling 
>of loss and alienation, we are denying our old "albatrosses". . . .


Lets not forget Vidal's oh-so-clever use of Pynchon in his "satire" of the
pomo American novel, _Duluth_ : "It's an obscure - even parochial -
principle called Pynchon's false corollary. It seldom works outside a
university literary lab." etc. etc.

Well, at least Anthony Burgess found its "scurrility and wit" a "large joy".


Niall