"Difficult"?

[Jrl413 at aol.com]

Subj:	"Difficult"?
Date:	97-05-21 21:24:50 EDT
From:	Greg.Montalbano at ucop.edu (Greg Montalbano)
Sender:	owner-pynchon-l at waste.org
To:	pynchon-l at waste.org

Greg said -
"snip"

>books REALLY TOUGH GOING;  tough but rewarding, tough but annoying, tough
>but intellectually stimulating, etc etc etc

>Am I the only one who takes exception to this?  I mean, I've always read FOR
>PLEASURE, first and foremost;  and it seems to me that even the most
>non-analytical readers (among whom I number myself) can, if they're willing
>to relinquish control & just let themselves be swept along by an author
>they've learned to trust, can enjoy the alternating playfulness, intensity,
>insight and STORIES (strange, hilarious and wonderful stories) this writer
>has to offer. {{This is not to ignore the myriad other levels, sublevels,
>lattices, matrices, and crystalline cross-structures at work in his
>writings;  readers who are so inclined -- or who are being forced to read
>this stuff & write a paper on it -- have all these levels available to them;
>but they shouldn't be seen as the END of his writing.}}

    Reading Greg's comments made me think about listening to Dylan 28 years
ago: huddled around Howie's record player in his basement, listening to "Sad
Eyed Lady of the Lowlands"...... whispering to each other, 
    "what is going on in this song?  what is he talking about ? and God, this
is so LONG ! "   Although we didn't understand it - we listened over and over
again, totally fascinated, entranced by the images. And each time we listened
we gained a little more insight, picked out a phrase that revealed a little
more of its meaning, or made a connection with something that suddenly became
True, in a way that we had never understood it before. 
     Jimmy said reading Pychon is hard. I agree. But it is both hard AND
easy. It is hard if you approach it that way --  trying to keep track of
where each character is, how they fit into the passage, and how did we get
here from there, anyway?  But it is easy if you approach it THAT way  -- and
let the words (sounds) wash you away to places (thoughts) you've never been
before without attempting to pry the meaning out of each unexplained
reference or analyze the deeper meaning of an unattached ear.      These
meanings will reveal themselves, when you are ready. But it may be a long
time coming.  I've been going back and forth between the two methods. 
     And this is not to attempt to value the hard above the easy, BTW, as
there is clearly value in both. But isn't the easy way more subversive and,
ultimately, more meaningful (?).

> ..I have never looked up from a Pynchon novel & thought "This is HARD!"

     Listening to Dylan was never hard. I still don't understand the
character Judas Priest in "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and....." from John
Wesley Harding, but that's ok. I don't have to undestand it all to  enjoy
listening to it. (and who is the little neighbor boy at the end of that song
anyway?)

     DFW = Donovan.

Rick Lawler (jrl413 at aol.com)

"To live outside the law you must be honest"  - R. Zimmerman, 1969.

P.S. Hi , Sean.