pynchon-l-digest V2 #1856

[Doug Millison]

I like this idea that the "second-story" is the story that Pynchon 
weaves into the surface text of his fictions via direct 
literary/political/historical references and illusions -- the sort of 
thing that a Pynchon scholar like Charles Hollander discusses in his 
fascinating readings of Pynchon.

"jbor"
>... There'd be no reward from Stencil because there's no honor among
>     second- (or ninth-) story men. Because Stencil was more a bum than
     he. (390.7)
>[snip] But on a reflexive level the quip that there's "no honor among
>second- (or ninth-) story men" relates to the way that Pynchon's postmodern
>fictions are constructed, how ideas and stories are "stolen" from prior
>sources.


Nesting of narratives is a very old literary device and I fail to see 
it as a defining characteristic of PoMo - unless you want to untether 
PoMo  from its late 20th century historical context and open it to 
all literary works with  nested narratives.

"jbor"
>The nesting of narratives within narratives (within a narrative)
>typifies much of his fiction, particularly in this novel and in _M&D_, and
>is a defining characteristic of the postmodern genre itself.


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