pynchon-l-digest V2 #1910

[Richard Romeo]

Hey Mr F:

I just re-read it and it is uncanny how different this book is from his past 
work--because of the nature of performance art, perhaps?
This time around, it seemed to me that Lauren "becomes" Mr Tuttle.

I posted this in late january to the list regarding TBA--(During the 
Underworld "world tour" DD mentioned in an reading that he is very 
interested in the Heaven's Gate tragedy, not the Aum Shinryko that I mention 
below.)

Rich

I suppose delillo's penchant for not writing the same book again and again 
(though he was accused of doing just that early in his career)--TBA book is 
performance art in words. (BTW, Rumor is he may be working on some sort of 
book about the Aum Shinriyko cult.) Two other thoughts regarding the novel: 
TBA reminds me of DD's piece in support of a Chinese dissident: The Artist 
in a Cage (also refers to a German(?) performance artist who pretended he 
was a dog). Also, there's one scene in the book that is a perfect 
description of the movie Satantango, the flick I saw that had DD in the same 
audience last year: the novel refers somewhere to watching a still-life in 
real time--perfect description for that film's long and extended shots of 
what are in effect still life(s). Could be wrong, just an impression of 
mine. Don't think anyone can accuse the man of being a cold-hearted novelist 
with the last two books--there's a couple of scenes in The Body Artist that 
are heart-breakenly beautiful. Rich
It has elements of Kafka's The Hunger Artist, for one thing, but DD, imho, 
is trying to replicate what Joyce did in Finnegans Wake--the abolition of 
past/present/future tense in the book, of course on a much easier to 
understand level for us--not that the book isn't hard--it is. characters 
seem to merge, scenes repeat, impressions are equally unsure. then near the 
end, DD throws in another "frame", a description of the work of the "body 
artist", using elements the reader has been introduced to in different ways 
up to that point. (think of stephen dedalus writing that poem in A Portrait, 
the reader experiences that act of creation along w/ SD--Lauren Hartke's 
"performance" near the end of the book has that quality).

>From: FrodeauxB at aol.com
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: pynchon-l-digest V2 #1910
>Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2001 17:36:08 EDT
>
>Good one Doug-and no doubt all too true. I again must ask, has anyone read
>Delillo's "The Body Artist"?
>
>TTFN
>
>frodeauxb

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