Tom's muse

[Meg Larson]

> What if we say instead that CL49 is in fact Pynchon's *handbook* on how
to read a 
> Thomas Pynchon novel?  It is Pynchon's meta-novel--the novel about his
novels.  It is a
>  Baedekker guide to the land of Pynch.

This is the impression I got my first time through COL49, that it's a
blueprint, or handbook to agree with John's term, for reading other Pynchon
novels.  I can't quite put my finger on a specific passage, but I had this
eerie premonition of things to come . . . I also read _GR_ first, and COL49
was structured much the same way, though on a much smaller scale, and I for
one thought it was a decent novel, considering that I went right for the
guts of his work (the heart and soul, too, peut-etre) and didn't wade my
way into it. 
   
> It is the book that tells us how his other books operate.
> 
> My strongest grounds for this particular stab come from my reading GR
before I read CL49.  
> I remember clearly how reading CL49 made a lot of GR come into focus for
me, not exactly 
> explaining, but educating me in the fundamental mode of P's writing.
> 
> I'll push this a litle further and say that CL49 is Pynchon's deliberate
homage to his 
> muse--his girl with a boy's name persona standing for the very art within
his old corse.  
> The image of the Remedios Varos painting--woman spinning the world out of
her 
> hair--is emblematic of  P's conception of his own writing.  A-and we
wouldn't expect him 
> to just come out and say that now, would we?  Hence the coy possum
putdown.
> 
> Well, it's better than everybody insulting everybody and all quitting the
list, I imagine.
>
Yes it is--and I will go back to my lurker shell now . . .

> john m
>