pynchon-l-digest V2 #1683

[MalignD at aol.com]

<< any work of art worthy of being called art works on several levels, calls 
up complex and contradictory responses, and arises from a complex of 
motivations and intentions and urges on the part of the artist. Reduce that 
to "esthetics" if you wish, but as with all such reduction, you lose a great 
deal in the process, 
especially in the case of Pynchon's novels where historical and political 
matters matter so much. >>

There's little in this I would disagree with, although I don't know what 
"great deal" is lost in what you see as a "reduction."   One doesn't reduce 
art by acknowledging that art is what it is.