COL49: The beginning is the beginning is the end

[calbert at hslboxmaster.com]

MalignD:

> If Pynchon is being ironic with his sneaker-scuffing self-deprecation,
> that would suggest that his real opinion is that these stories (which,
> in fact, aren't all that hot) are of such a high standard that to put
> them down in that way is an irony the reader will get and enjoy--a
> fairly repulsive bit of egotism--or that the reader will not get the
> irony, which would be pointless and perverse.

I'd rather jam my head in a wood chipper than challenge M on this 
point.......but I must.....

I don't think that the argument that the Slow Learner intro offers a 
false lead necessitates an interpretation that Pynchon finds these 
works "exquisite"....I can credit some "sneaker scuffing", not 
entirely in the service of sincere self deprecation, but rather in yet 
another attempt to throw the "deconstructing" critic a distracting 
morsel.....those words may, in fact, reveal nothing about what 
Pynchon REALLY feels about them - any such revelation would be 
very much out of character...amusing himself at the expense of the 
reader - well, that's not entirely inconsistent....

That Driblette passage near the end of Chapt 3 can lead to some 
very unsettling conclusions regarding the task of literary criticism...

> Far more likely, it seems to me, that he finds these mostly mediocre
> stories mediocre.

Many years ago there was a Paul Klee exhibit, featuring works 
from ALL periods of the artists life....though it is very likely that 
both he and his critics would point to the "billiard ball" series as the 
zenith of his art, while chortling over the "naive" pencil landscapes 
of the artist's youth, I, as a mere spectator found those pieces 
astonishing - there is something truly disturbing about great artistic 
precocity.....I get the same sense reading V. and COL49 and 
recollect having my mind blown pretty thoroughly by The Secret 
Integration......

but then, I'm not even Dudious


love,
cfa