John Barth Vs. Pynchon

[Otto Sell]

Wrong book - try "Chimera," read "The Friday Book" which really helps to
understand Barth and other writers, not alone postmodernists, too.
Barth is evidently a teacher who teaches the reader about literature while
the reader is reading.
Barth is "recycling" myths to show that "our body of literature" rests upon
these meta-fictions.
Both authors, Barth and Pynchon, prefer technique (postmodernism, binary
oppositions, reversions, thresholds, narration, stories-within-stories)
instead of content. Contrary to Pynchon who is generally silent about his
work Barth has produced his own "secondary" literature which is very
readable and great fun in itself.

And I love them both!

on Barth:
http://www.itap.de/homes/otto/todorov.htm

you find links to both books I've mentioned at amazon plus the covers here:
http://www.itap.de/homes/otto/pynchon/pynlit.htm#mod

Alan Lindsay: "Death in the Funhouse : John Barth and Poststructural
Aesthetics" (Studies in Literary Criticism and Theory, Vol 2) at:
http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/0820425478/qid=980241364/sr=1-1/028-37
75970-7437309
(get all the numbers)

Joe Weixlmann and Sher Weixlmann: "Barth and Barthelme Recycle the Perseus
Myth: A Study in Literary Ecology," Modern Fiction Studies, Vol. 25, No. 2,
1979.

Patricia Warrick: "The Circuitious Journey of Consciousness in Barth's
Chimera," Critique, Vol. XVIII, No. 2, 1977.

Jerry Powell: "John Barth's Chimera: A Creative Response to the Literature
of Exhaustion," Critique, Vol. XVIII, No. 2, 1977.

Cynthia Davis: "The Key to the Treasure: Narrative Movements and Effects in
Chimera," Journal of Narrative Technique 5 (1975).


"Derjenige,
der den Mann,
der den Pfahl,
der auf der Brücke,
der auf dem Weg,
der nach Worms führt,
liegt, steht, umgeworfen hat, anzeigt,
bekommt eine Belohnung."

"Whoever the man who the post which on the bridge
which on the road which to Worms
goes, lies, stood, knocked over, identifies,
gets a reward."
(T. Todorov)

--this little sentence exemplifies Barth's understanding of literature.
-------------------------------------------------

Otto


----- Original Message -----
From: Saioued Al-Zaioued <chicagoist at hotmail.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2001 4:21 AM
Subject: John Barth Vs. Pynchon

> I was wondering if anyone would take up the challenge and compare the two
> authors in a general manner. I was wondering if Barth has the depth, I
just
> start "lost in the funhouse" and really do not know what to think.
>