Absences in VL

[Matt Treyvaud]

On Sat, 5 Dec 1998, Scott Badger wrote:

> But Pynchon does the same in GR and M&D.  Part of his "technique", you might
> even say.  Any thoughts about these absences as a literary device?

As people have said before me, I think 'absence' isn't really the right
word - maybe 'alternate viewpoints' or something similarly wanky. I like
it when writers tell the stories that normally don't get told. Maxine Hong
Kingston, Louise Erdrich, and Stanislaw Lem are other favourites of mine
when it comes to this. When a (good) writer looks at an era or an issue
from a perspective which is usually overlooked, it generally makes for a
more interesting story than when someone treads the same old ground, no
matter how lyrical their prose - in my opinion, at least. Without meaning
to sound like a know-it-all, sometimes I wonder whether the reason
Vineland seems to have gotten a much worse rap than the rest of Pynchon's
books is because the subject matter -seems- so familiar - 'oh, great,
another story about hippiehood and its degeneration into reagandom.' And
maybe they're even right, for that matter, though it seems like every week
someone brings to light some heretofore unimagined dimension to the book.
Maybe the complexity and novelty is hidden behind the familiarity.

Matt

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 Matt Treyvaud, Abbr. Prim.                       (R.I.P. Kerry Thornley)
 khidr at kosher.com                           cthulhu at aardvark.apana.org.au
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