NP (Not Really): Kotler's "Angle Quickest for Flight"

[Mark A. Douglas]

Was it Salon that first posited this book as "pynchonian" (whatever that
means...and just what does that *really* mean in relation to comparable books?),
or as "a cross between Pynchon and Virginia Woolf" (or some other preposterous
comparison that no book rightly deserves)?

A very poorly edited book.  Reminds me of reading "Oscar and Lucinda" in
hardback first edition (a notoriously poorly edited book, sort of fixed for the
paperback release as I recall, but I never bothered to check).  Sentences as
times simply seem to be missing words, or at least clauses.

Also, struck me immediately as a derivation of Barnhardt's "Gospel" (which
struck me as a derivation of "Foucault's Pendulum", which struck me as...but
enough of that),  but aside from some oddly named characters (Padre Isosceles,
Coyote Blu, Angel...)(and what book these days doesn't feature oddly named
characters), it strikes me as having little to do with our man P.  Yes, there's
conspiracy, yes, there's sacred texts, but there's very little magic, and
ultimately, IMHO, Pychon is a writer of and about magic, and to my mind, a
'pynchonian' novel would be magical. (Editorial aside:   Jim Dodge has come the
closest to a 'pynchonian' novel, again, IMHO.)

Just thoughts, because someone asked not so long ago.

MAD
madness at airmail.net
...who thinks, even though he enjoys his work, that Steve Erickson is much
closer to Jonathan Carroll in spirit than he is to Pynchon...