Drugs in Pynchon's fiction

[Paul Mackin]

On Fri, 22 Oct 1999, Terrance F. Flaherty wrote:

> > > In SL intro he notes the "negative side" of the Beat
> > > prophet resurrections, and the hippie movement, that "placed
> > > too much emphasis on youth, including the eternal verity."
> > 
> > Yes, but he also writes of the positives, at greater length, and is
> > positively laudatory of *On the Road*. He writes: Kerouac's book "I
> > *still* believe is one of the great American novels." (my emph.)
> 
> This is true. Do Pynchon's novels resemble Kerouac's great
> american novel, how? 

Don't know about similarity in style since P's stuff seems so much more
thought-out than the tossed-off spontaneity that was the effect K's book
was able to suggest. Let us fervently hope that the two authors are not
similar in a secondary  respect. Kerouac in the end seemed to have
been rather of the opinion that the free and easy ideas of the Beats,
which he certainly had become the prime symbol for, were too irreligious
and unpatriotic. He more or less denounced some of the more prominent
personages of the movement.  Wouldn't it be awful if after all
the interpretation, explication and hermenutics P has been subjected to
he should on his death bed come to murmur--That was not what I meant at
all, not what I meant at all.

			P.