Durrell and Pynchon's parodies

[Paul Mackin]

(concerning Julius' and Kim's posts)
Though I receive credit for calling attention to the Pynchon/
Durrell similarities, I was mainly agreeing with a previous
poster. Have forgotten who it was. My angle on it was of
encountering a new author in the early 60s who seemed to be
so strongly suggestive of the reigning ESTABLISHED author of
the moment.

An as addition to the current posts, there is a review of
a new Durrell biography in today's Washington Post Book
World. I was unaware Durrell is still held in such high esteem,
as comes out in the bio.
				
			P.


Kim L. Serkes wrote:
> 
> At 20:39 -0400 7/20/97, JULIUS RAPER wrote:
> >Paul Mackin is right about the connection between V. and Durrell--both
> >parody and tribute, I'd guess.
> [...]
> >       It's intriguing to compare the evolution of the two since 1963,
> >Durrell in the rather V.-esque REVOLT OF APHRODITE and the later pretty
> >unique Avignon Quintet (1974-85); Pynchon in GR and now M&D.  The Quintet
> >challenges in more ways than the latter, but no more than GR.
> [...]
> 
> I'd missed Mackin's original message, but your comments are tantalizing.
> Durrell's "Quintet" is certainly a challenge to the reader; while I find it
> to lack the narrative drive and sense of (linguistic) play of M&D, it seems
> more directly aimed at the question of what it means to be human in the
> mid-late 20th c.
> 
> +~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+
> Kim L. Serkes -- kls at newmediacenters.org -- San Francisco, CA, USA