Mr. Vidal's case

[Paul Mackin]

On Mon, 5 Jun 2000, Michel Ryckx wrote:

> His point of view is that of a reader and not a scholar's. In
> The main theme of 'American Plastic' is not the authors
> he speaks of, but the 'problem' that American universities -at
> least where literature is studied- tend to drift away from every
> day life (at least in 1974).
 
Another interesting point is that P gets some credit at least from Vidal
for NOT have a university affiliation, unlike the other writers being
considered.  Overall the verdict on P is negative but V does think P
writes with a lot of energy. But then comes some negating entropic
comment about energy loss. It seems like even critics that don't much like
the 'sense' of what P writes still tend to rate him extrememly high in the
beautiful language department. 
 


> Something else:
> Was it overlooked or was it just an uninteresting question when I
 asked what the function was of the italics used by mr. Pynchon?
 (esp. Mason & Dixon)

I, like Otto, never noticed anything all that peculiar in this respect. An
odd thing for me, and others as I recall from the group reading, was the
frequent initial caps in NONproper nouns when in English the
usual practice is not to use a cap. It's an emphasis supplying mechanism
analogous to italicizing. Maybe it's an 18th Century practice.

Reminds me, I never completed my study of the use of the word
"edge." Capped and uncapped.


			P.