The Difference (WAS: Discussion Tip Of The Day)

[Don Corathers]

You are of course correct. I probably should have said "the distinction between the voice of the author and those of his characters and other narrative agencies," and I would still have left some room for you to give me a hard time.  

Pynchon, especially, keeps himself submerged deeply under the text. But there are moments when what's on the page seems (to me) to be the author speaking directly to the reader on a subject he cares about. I'm thinking about the Charlie Parker stuff at the end of Chapter 2. Consider: "...a great deal of nonsense had been spoken and written about him. Much more was to come, some is still being written today." This strikes me as Pynchon stepping outside the fiction for a moment to deliver a topical comment, and I presume that to be the voice of the author. I think the verb tenses in the paragraph, which clearly separate the narrative present of the V-Note from "today," the moment the sentence is being written, support that reading.

Don

Don 


----------
From: 	David Morris[SMTP:fqmorris at hotmail.com]
Sent: 	Sunday, October 15, 2000 10:54 PM
To: 	crawdad at one.net; lycidas2 at earthlink.net; pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: 	RE: The Difference (WAS: Discussion Tip Of The Day)


I was abrupt. With these days of war in Jerusalem, let me clarify.  The 
"voice of the author" has been kept scrupulously  blank, except by his very 
few commentaries.  Your speculation/observation of a distinction is in your 
imagination.  The author's voice is in the totality.

David Morris
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