Crit of Pynchon

[Shirley Lim]

On this whole criticism of Pynchon issue, I ran across an interesting book
a while back. It was a reader's guide to GR, but not the one by
Weiss(something, berger maybe?), but an older one. I found in a U
library, so I don't know how common it is in bookstores. I recall that it
was written by a UC professor. Anyhow, despite the faults I found with it,
it did have some pretty harsh attacks on Pynchon (which were mostly where
I found the faults, Pynch fan that I am). Getting to the point, I thought
I'd share these criticisms, and maybe some others out there who remember
more about this book could add some. This could be that "square"
perspective that was mentioned.

a) Pynchon doesn't have real plots. He fails to follow through on issues
and sub-plots he raises because he looses interest. Essentially, GR is a
prose poem and the reader shouldn't be disappointed that the plot is
incoherent.

b) Pynchon's characters are inadequately motivated. They just do things to
move the plot along. They also are given multiple and unrelated roles
(Enzian for ex.) so that they can fufil symbolism Pynch is shooting for,
whether or not those roles are related. You just can't identify with them.

c) (not really a crit, but I read it as such) All of GR can be reduced to
threads of symbols made up of binary opposites, and these symbols are all
one needs to understand to "get" GR.