John Barth Vs. Pynchon

[Mark A. Douglas]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Otto Sell" <o.sell at TELDA.NET>
To: "Mark A. Douglas" <mdougla1 at midsouth.rr.com>; <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2001 2:30 AM
Subject: Re: John Barth Vs. Pynchon


>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Mark A. Douglas <mdougla1 at midsouth.rr.com>
> To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2001 8:21 AM
> Subject: Re: John Barth Vs. Pynchon
>
>
> > I simply no longer compare the two authors:  Pynchon exhibits so much
more
> > depth than Barth that the two don't seem comparable, and with his later
> > works, Barth sort of falls into a Tom Robbinish-hole.
> >
>
> Could you please tell me which ones you mean.

Barth's Tom Robbins 'one extended joke' period begins with "Sabbatical", and
continues right along through every remaining work thereafter, "The
Tidewater Tales", "The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor", and "Once Upon a
Time" (cleverly subtitled 'A Floating Opera').

On my very personal timeline, there are three John Barths:  1) the guy that
wrote "The Floating Opera", and "The End of the Road", two short, promising
novels that showed promise and connectivity with French philosophy of
existientialism and nihilism; 2) the guy that wrote "The Sot-Weed Factor",
"Giles Goat-Boy", "Lost in the Funhouse", "Chimera", and "LETTERS"; and then
the guy that wrote the works mentioned in the above paragraph.

I tend to separate and dismiss Barth the critic from Barth the author
because it seems to me that his criticism is more a reaction to the
reactions to his fictional works than it is active or proactive critical
pieces.  He is more often defending his style of fiction, or the authors he
plunders from, and while his pieces on the muse are entertaining, there are
only so many way to spell 'Caliope'.