Intellect vs Emotion

[Paul Mackin]

Vaska sez:

To say that Pynchon
doesn't strive for emtional impact makes no sense to me.


>>>>Me  neither, nor does putting TOO MUCH emphasis on the
"intellectual" content seem like a very good idea either. P's rep
in this regard comes from his extensive use of specific historical
and scientific knowledge to populate his books, often thrown in more
or less cryptically so that you  have to search it out, even dig for it.
But isn't that mainly the extent of it? Obviously you'd have to be
out of your mind to ever try to use Pynchon in order to LEARN science
or history. But I'd go a step farther and say that you would also be
ill-advised to allow yourself to accept a particular scientific, historical
or philosophical viewpoint based very extensively on his inspired
meditations. I know I wouldn't. Please don't get me wrong. Reading
P is NEVER for dummies obviously. The more you KNOW the more
enjoyment you will derive. But in the end it's the human feelings
of sympathy, fear, loathing, love, lust, what have you,  which is why
anyone bothers to read him.

The way I see it anyway.

			P.