John Barth Vs. Pynchon

[Otto Sell]

----- Original Message -----
From: jbor <jbor at bigpond.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2001 10:29 PM
Subject: Re: John Barth Vs. Pynchon
>
> ----------
> >From: "Otto Sell" <o.sell at telda.net>
> >
>
> > 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.
>
>
> Though I must say that the impression I get from reading some of Barth's
> essays and articles is that he wasn't and isn't that much of a fan of
> Pynchon's work.
>
> Anyway, even in Barth's later essays, the 'Replenishment' retraction and
> those in _The Friday Book_ and _Further Fridays_, I don't recall seeing
any
> references to Pynchon or his work whatsoever. While it doesn't seem odd
for
> Pynchon not to mention Barth (because Pynchon is neither a teacher nor a
> critic), the reverse does seem to beg a question about Barth's attitude
> towards Pynchon and his work, in terms of "anxiety of influence" or some
> sort of adversarial instinct, because I agree that there are definite
> similarities in both style and substance between the two.
>
> best
>
>

Where do you get the impression from?
Pynchon is mentioned on page 2 of the 'Replenishment'-essay (Who are the
postmodernists?), page 195 of my edition of "The Friday Book" (1984, 1997).
And Pynchon has written several intros for other writers (Richard Farina,
Jim Dodge) - he could have said something about "Chimera" too. But he's of
course heavily referring to the "Sot-Weed Factor" in M&D, not only with
Timothy Tox and the Pennsylvaniad.
I'm sure they both like each others literature. Pynchon surely did not feel
the urge to speak about Barth's novels because Barth himself was already
telling so much about it, and Barth best could react to Pynchon's silence
about his own work by being silent about it too, let others do the work.
In getting Barth I would not concentrate on the two above mentioned essays
which are quoted and recalled ever and ever. For me his "highlights" are
"How To Make A Universe" and "Mystery And Tragedy: The Twin Motions of
Ritual Heroism" from "The Friday Book" where he speaks about literature in
general - and this includes Pynchon.

"Nightly, when I wake to think myself beworlded and find myself in heaven, I
review the night I woke to think and find myself vice-versa. I'd been long
lost, deserted, down and out in Lybia; two decades past I'd overflown that
country with the bloody Gorgon's head, and every drop that hit the dunes had
turned to snake--so I learned later: at twenty years and twenty kilometers
high, how could I have known? Now there I was, sea-leveled, forty, parched
and plucked, every grain in my molted sandals raising blisters, and
beleaguered by the serpents of my past."
(first chapter of Perseid, "Chimera," p. 67)

Otto

PS "Chimera" isn't translated yet into German - a great challenge. It's one
of those books that are best read aloud in bed after making love.