GRGR(3) 50.31 Love Pointsman

[Keith Woodward]

At 11:44 AM 6/9/99 -0700, Doug wrote:
>Interesting observation, but so what? This seems the sort of observation
>that could be made about any number of novels, of this century and
>centuries previous. Narrative tricks are nothing new in novel-writing. That
>TRP plays word games of all sorts is obvious.  Seems safe to say TRP is out
>to blow our minds, make us laugh, make us question our own perceptions,
>make us question the powers that be, the received wisdom, & etc., in every
>way that he can. Does TRP actually add something new to the writer's bag of
>tricks, or does he merely (HAH!) offer brilliant, stunning, mind-boggling
>instances of techniques that have been around for a very long time?

Yeah, I don't think it's anything new (I don't think much is, it all goes
back to Sterne).  but it does seem to me that at times the "you" in P. is
tough to pin down (no surprise), seems to want to address a sometimes absent
audience.  Joyce himself said there was nothing new under the pen (...always
makes me squint me eyes and scrach my head).  It seems likely that we could
trace a causal chain all the way back to the beginning re their inovations.
GR is often, however, an entity unto itself and feels very unique...a-and
nothing's ever presented the exact combination of terms, themes, etc. that
GR does (it's unique like any other text), so in that sense, it's still
somehow independent of other texts.  In other words: Does he add something
new?  Pointsman says no, Mexico says yes.

Keith W