"Difficult"?

[Greg Montalbano]

Jimmy sez:

>Anyone who claims Pynchon isn't difficult is either bragging or so
>alarmingly bright it's scary.  

Believe me, I'm neither.

My reasons for that post (aside from smoking-out Andrew, whose erudition has
been missed of late -- thanks for not disappointing me, Andrew!) were:

1) To get a good, general discussion of Pynchon's readability going (partly
for the sake of the newcomers;  partly to remind everybody why we're here);
and

2) Because I really HAVE been bothered by the increased carping about the
difficulty, and the implications thereof -- possibly resulting from readers
who dichotomize into form vs content, when we've been presented with novels
that give us plenty of both, and then some.

Part of what's kept me reading (and re-reading) the Pynch all these years is
the "music" of his writing -- I've never been much for poetry (except for an
early infatuation with Kenneth Patchen), but I think I've been getting much
the same thing from these novels as poetry fans get from their favorite poets.

Something else that should be developed (but not by me;  not "bright"
enough) is the SUBLIMINAL assimilation of attitudes, relationships,
concepts, etc ;  when I read a Pynchon novel for the first time, even though
I'm NOT an expert on the Italian postal service, colonial politics, European
business realignments in WWII, Department of Justice pilot programs for
subverting Third World governments, or the New York sewer system, somehow my
mind is STILL penetrated & permeated with the implied structure &
interrelatedness of it all -- months (or sometimes years) later, it will all
snap into focus;  and yet again, still another level will be revealed.

Never meant to imply the analytical readers were "wrong";  I envy them their
joy & continued employment (you're never REALLY finished deconstructing a
Pynchon novel!).  I just wanted to remind everyone that there are other
things going on here, too.

(Thanks and a tip o' the hat to MASCARO, Paul York & Andrew Dinn for their
replys to this post, for saying some things that I wanted to say, but wasn't
BRIGHT enough.)

~G~