DFW on NPR

[Stefan Schuber]

A propos the P guy and DFW Tom Stanton opined:
"My wife thinks my Pynchon studies are more of an obsession than a
hobby, but you've hit it on the head IMHO. I have also approached
Joyce in much the same way, as an intricate puzzle or design that
I can spend hours studying for the pure enjoyment of it. In my mispent
youth Faulkner provided much the same pleasure overall, but in the
end I grew weary of him. "

The Pynchon-Faulkner comparison is telling: After rereading _Absalom_ 
last summer I think it's Faulkner's best writing and should supplant 
_Sound_ (but then again I think Flaubert's _Education sentimentale_ is 
much better than the _Bovary_) in the canon.

But back to P &F: F is constantly interested in the limits and 
boundaries; think of the map of Yoknapatawpha (sp) county, the heavy 
sense of "this is the limits of how far I know and how far I go," and the 
boundaries of & limits to & contstraints on human intercourse. Pynchon, 
on the other hand, blurs out beyond the assumed/presumed limits and is 
concerned about how events beyond our conventional and current knowing 
can (with frequently deleterious effects) affect his characters.

I personally am not ready to close the book on Faulkner, but I think the 
comparison with Pynchon a generation later is telling for the 
globalization of the American novel.

ss