The Gnostic Pynchon

[jbor]

> 
>> Still, why label Pynchon a Gnostic?  Defies labels pretty well, wouldn't you
>> say?  Although they've still got a noose or two around him like "Post-Modern
>> Author" or "Recluse" or whatever.

Actually, that postmodern writer label is his stay of execution imo. It's
traditional philosophy which has him coded and compartmentalised on the
library catalogue between Barbara Pym and Ayn Rand, and the traditional
critics who would have him share the bookstore shelves with Mailer, Updike
and Wolfe.

With postmodernism those nooses of nationality and temporality and
disciplinarity have begun to unravel. We can talk about Pynchon in the same
breath as Rabelais, Cervantes, Sterne and Joyce, or Kant, Nietzsche,
Wittgenstein and Jung without getting driven from the campus.

best


----------
>From: Muchasmasgracias at cs.com
>To: fqmorris at hotmail.com, pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: The Gnostic Pynchon
>Date: Fri, Jun 23, 2000, 4:11 PM
>