Life v. Art (was Re: Drugs in Pynchon's fiction

[Paul Mackin]

On Thu, 28 Oct 1999, Doug Millison wrote:

> I first read GR that same year, sitting on a U.S. Army base very close to
> the 38th parallel at the border between North and South Korea, it seemed
> clear to me that behind the wonderfully-evoked WWII and other settings, TRP
> was talking directly to me, about my experience in the 50s and 60s, and
> about the various forces that had acted in such a way as to have me sitting
> there, in uniform, doing what I was doing. His voice got in my head in a
> way that no other novelist's has, speaking to me about what it means to be
> alive right now (then). I can't articulate it as well as I'd like, but I
> also think that despite the wide-ranging international material in his
> novels, TRP tells a uniquely American story.
 
I can see how this could come about. And yes it's hard to articulate these
things. To me it was like the Madelaine in the tisane tea. A recovery of
time lost--didn't have to do with how I'd arrived at where I was NOW but
what it was like before I arrived there.
			
		P.