"Difficult"?

[Tom Stanton]

At 09:36 AM 5/22/97 -0700, Greg Montalbano wrote:
>Jimmy sez:
>
>>Anyone who claims Pynchon isn't difficult is either bragging or so
>>alarmingly bright it's scary.  
>
>Believe me, I'm neither.

Same here. I started out as a lit major but have slipped far away
from the discipline. Still, I don't find TRP difficult, but wonderfully
complex and challenging. 

[snip]
 
>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.

Hmmm...what i think may be happening -- what happens with me at
least--is that TRP makes me *recall* so many things that I've learned
or read or heard about over the years, and then makes these stunning
leaps to unexpected connections. For example, in GR we have spiritualism
and the intelligence community side by side in Section 1. Now, I know 
some bits about both, but I never would 've connected them. He does, and 
when I've finished I'm amazed at the parallels (spooks vs "spooks", seance
vs intelligence gathering), and the connections to behaviorism and
information. Just amazing. TRP also makes me scurry to my desk ency-
clopedia, which I happen to think is a good thing. He triggers questions
and makes me curious about the things I don't understand or have never
read about. The detailed account of the V-2 engineering finally sent me
off on a quest to read more about these machines & now I think I could hold
my own now discussing the early history of rocketry in WW2. Which led me
to more info on Goddard & his struggles, and to the Russian rocket pro-
gram and how we got to Sputnik. Which led me to the history, the politics,
and the people surrounding these technologies. 

So if he's difficult, I'm glad for it, because I get so much from it. If
you will
allow it, TRP will send you off on your own quest. You start finding your
own connections. Is it all historically accurate and realistic? No, but it
isn't 
supposed to be, it's fiction, a story, based in a reality defined by two
covers 
that bears a striking but skewed resemblance to our everyday world. If it
were entirely realistic or literal it would be no better than any other
history
text. Instead, his work is dark, funny, spooky, and often very touching (I
don't
hold with the opinion that TRP never develops characters). A-and if it was 
easy you'd never get these great leaps, these fantastic twists of plot and
time
and narrative POVs, and you'd never, ever, have the chance to complete a 
passage or section and say to yourself, "goddamn that was great." 
[set cheerleader mode=off]