Dumb Question: Pynchon and Meta-Musil

[Murthy Yenamandra]

Richard Romeo wonders:
> Do ye think that if Pynchon was writing in the 20s, he woulda written 
> something like _Man W/o Qualities_?  

IMO, No. While I can see the overlap in the subject matter (such as
the effects of technology and scientific thinking on modern life, the
forces of history broken down into individual desires and confusions
etc) and the style (people who think Pynchon's writing is too cold
haven't seen Musil yet), the driving force behind that novel is the need
to reconcile love and the religious impulse with rational and objective
thinking. While Pynchon is concerned with where love fits into the
modern equation, I don't think that this reconciliation business is his
major preoccupation (your guess is as good as mine as to what that is).
Musil's style is also a lot more abstract and highly ironic than
Pynchon's.

But I wouldn't say that _The Man W/o Qualities_ is bereft of comic
relief - may be not the kind to tickle cfa's fancy, but some meta-relief
is there nonetheless.

Murthy

-- 
Murthy Yenamandra                  mailto:yenamand at cs.umn.edu
Dept of Computer Science           University of Minnesota
"Every heart/to love will come/but like a refugee" - Leonard Cohen