A simple Pynchon:Gaddis analogy

[Meg Larson]

 For this reader, _M&D_ does hold up on re-reading; my problem was trying to
get through the sucker the first time.  And in all my experience with TRP,
all of his novels (and the
too-long-to-be-a-short-story-but-too-short-to-be-a-novel _COL49_) demand
re-reading, as if that was Pynchon's intention anyway--the layering is so
thick that a reader couldn't possibly "get it" the first time, or even the
second time through.

While Monsieur Brecher is certainly entitled to his opinion, his use of Kirn
as the reviewer that got it right is a little odd; there were other negative
reviews by reviewers who at least lied and said they read the whole thing.
So I would have to give Keith's opinion the same lack of weight that I
granted a reviewer who couldn't even finish the book.

And lastly, lest I let time pass without reminding us all of this, my
favorite minor point:  Brecher mentions that writers trying to write the be
all and end all encyclopedic novel invariably fail, and that TRP was trying
to outdo _GR_ , leads me to conclude that Brecher expected _M&D_ to outdo
Gravity, but as I remind everyone every so often:  _GR_ is _GR_ and every
other Pynchon novel is NOT.  If you expect _M&D_ to be _GR_ or it's equal;
if you go looking to be disappointed, you will be.

"If there is a special hell for writers, it would be in the forced
contemplation of their own works"
                                                               --- John Dos
Passos
Meg Larson, Editor-in-Chief
_Valley Vanguard_
Saginaw Valley State University
125 Curtiss Hall
517-790-4248
vanguard at tardis.svsu.edu
mgl at tardis.svsu.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: Doug Millison <millison at online-journalist.com>
To: Brecher_Keith/mskcc_Neurology at mskmail.mskcc.org
<Brecher_Keith/mskcc_Neurology at mskmail.mskcc.org>; pynchon-l at waste.org
<pynchon-l at waste.org>
Date: Wednesday, September 03, 1997 10:37 PM
Subject: Re: A simple Pynchon:Gaddis analogy



>At 7:08 PM 9/3/97, Brecher_Keith/mskcc_Neurology at mskmail.mskcc.org wrote:
>>     M&_KeiD does not stand up on re-reading.
>
>Equal to my experience of Pynchon's previous novels, M&sce.D proves deeper
and
>more moving the closer I read and re-read.
>
>D O U G  M I L L I S O N ||||||||||||| millison at online-journalist.com
>
>
>