PO-PO-mo-JO (was PO's Vision)

[David Morris]

>From: Dave Monroe
>
>... er, actually, I thought my point was that "extra-textuality" was
>inescapable, inevitable, and my own response to the foregrounded 
>"indulgences" of (say, postmodernists like) Pynchon would be, fine, at 
>least that's being foregrounded, faced up to.  I don't think we necessarily 
>face any greater probelms, though, in reading Pynchon than we do in 
>reading, say, Joyce, or, for that matter, Shakespeare.  At least much 
>alluded to is contemporary to us. A-and it DOES make for some interesting 
>reading, not to mention research, interpretation ...

Well... er, then I guess I'm still having trouble reading your posts, huh?

No, actually I was trying to state my own thoughts about Pynchon's reliance 
on "extra-textuality."  If I remember correctly (which is by no means 
certain) he indicts himself to some degree on this count in his intro to 
"Slow Learner."  I don't actually thinks his own place in 
history/originality is in any danger, but if one of the goals of fiction is 
to "create a (consistent & self-contained) world" (which might not be a goal 
of Pynchon's), then being "encyclopedic" or relying on correspondences with 
other stories might be at odds with that goal.  I'm obviously not the first 
to make this point.

As for the relative "extra-textuality" of Joyce V. Pynchon, I'd say the 
difference would be in the extreme surface-level of Pynchon's references, 
both contemporary and not.  I do think that overt and multitudinous 
references to past forms and specific masterpieces is a prominent aspect of 
Post-Modernism.

FWIW,
David Morris

>David Morris wrote:
> > Lately I've begun to wonder if Mr. Pynchon has relied too heavily on 
>references to other texts at the expense of his own.  Might this not be the 
>indictment of Post-Modernism in general?
> >
> > My god, does TRP have a grasp of history!  His mark is almost that of 
>one never besmirched by the distraction of Modernism, so immersed in 
>historical allusions, almost skipping Modernism.  But might might this not 
>be thought as artifice as opposed to originality?
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