Mr. Weierman's post

[Vaska]

*** spoiler alert: this post includes a passing glance at M&D ***





Craig Bleakely writes: 

>I wanted to respond to Joel Weierman, not because I think he's wrong, but
>becasue I'd like to persuade him to slug it out with Pynchon just a bit
>longer.  [snip]
>
>I'm probably most curious as to the specific problems you're encountering in
>finding this reading pleasuareable.  Your message implies a contrast between
>Pynchon's work and an "easy" but rewarding book like "The Liar's Club."  [snip]
>
>Maybe my big question is : what are you hoping to get out of Pynchon, and
>why doesn't that seem to be happening?  

I guess my own experience with reading Pynchon's stuff helps me appreciate
Joel's ambivalence a little more than Craig seems to here.  _Lot 49_, which
I read first, was more or less a breeze [though I really don't trust people
who claim that it's a straightforward little novelette, etc.].  When I tried
_V_, I had to give it up out of sheer boredom: more than once or twice, or
even three times.  No idea why I kept returning to the novel and giving it
yet another try, but so I did.  Until, eventually, whatever resistance to
the text I'd had suddenly broke and -- the rest is history, as they say.
The odd thing is that I had exactly the same experience with _GR_, which I
still feel is one of the great novels of the second half of this century.
_Vineland_, on the other hand, though I like it much less than either of the
other two "big" novels, was plain sailing from start to finish.  And _M&D_,
now, just hasn't managed to grab me yet.  It was heartening to read in
someone's message [yesterday, I think], that it gets better as it goes along...

I'm not sure that any of my initial resistance to two out of 4 Pynchon's
novels had anything to do with "expectations" and the question of what
rewards I was looking out for.  Or even with the relative difficulty of the
novels themselves: apart from some self-indulgent [and to me tedious]
sections in the second part, Joyce's _Ulysses_ remains one of the most
satisfying reads I know of.  Also, anyone who enjoys Stern and Cervantes,
and I do, shouldn't have any trouble with Pynchon -- yet I did.  I'm sure
other people have had similar experiences with some other equally fine
writers, often without being able to fully account for the initial dislike,
boredom, what have you; why should it be any different with Pynchon's work
then...?

Vaska