Joel Weierman reply

[Brian D. McCary]

Joel:

Looks like you've gotten plenty of response to your question already, but let
me throw in my two cents.  Primarily, I find I read to learn.  A good piece
of fiction, in my view, lets me into the author's head, so that I can see
how they think, and how they view the world.  Once inside, I may or may 
not find the view interesting, important, or relevant to me.  Other people
read for other reasons, including entertainemt, but I find this process of
discovering new perspectives entertaining in itself.

Some authors are more willing to show you what's inside them, others aren't.
Some have a unique perspective, others do not.  I think Pynchon, in his
writing, is one of the most open and accessible writers alive.  I get the
feeling I'm really seeing the world as he sees it.  Then, I find that his
view is rare, complex, and relevant.  It is this combination of honesty
about what he really things, *plus* the fact that what he thinks is 
intersting that I find is so unusual among writers today.  (His honesty
is also why I care so little about what he does in his private life.  He's
already given me access to the most important part.)

This accessability is what makes his work "difficult".  Real thought *is*
difficult: just try to spend a day tracking your own.  It's convoluted, it
folds back on itself, connections to seemingly unrelated ideas pop up all
the time, but so does your own stream of consciousness, I'm willing to bet.  If
you can live with voice inside your own head, I'm sure you can make it through,
and even savor, any of Pynchon's big books.

Now, when Mary Karr drags her BB Gun and her Bologna sandwich up that 
tree, I'm with her, I'm feeling it, it's relevant to me, and I see that
in other people sometimes, so I'm glad I read her book.  Part of her
experience is absorbed by me.  But so much of what Pynchon sees and comments
on surrounds me and all of us.  Hiking on a ridge, I'll suddenly find
myself thinking about Slothrop and Geli Tripping on the mountaintop.  
Listening to people browsing or dickering at a garage sale, and I'll
be reminded of Major Marvy paying for his whore, more himself in the act
of paying that in the act of eating, sleeping, even fucking.  (I'm
paraphrasing from memory here, but it's one of my favorite passages)
Pynchon comments about broad ideas, in metephores which are compact
and clear, and that is what I find so valuable about him.  No other 
fiction writer seems to say as much as clearly as he, at least in my
experience.

So, keep after GR.  It took me ages the first time through (I bought it
in a train station and used it for recreational reading) but collect the
nuggets as you go along, and the trip will pay for itself.  

Brian McCAry