V.V. (17) current chapter

[Doug Millison]

Defining the PoMo novel hasn't been anywhere near as simple as "jbor" might
want to make it sound.  Attributing to it characteristics from earlier eras
and other genres doesn't serve very well to define a genre, does it.  Recall
the Berube article we read a few weeks ago, wherein he talked about the
difficulty of finding a PoMo novel to teach.  A genre that includes The
Thousand and One Nights, Tristram Shandy and GR doesn't seems a bit ragged,
don't you think.

How Pynchon's "second-story" reference, in "jbor's" words  "would appear to
indicate his awareness that there's not
just a finite 'second story', as Hollander might argue, but
*multiple*,perhaps potentially infinite, stories in operation" is far from
clear.  Unless you can read Pynchon's mind, it's a bit difficult to say what
he might be aware of, isn't it.  What does it mean to have a "potentially
infinite" number of "stories in operation"? Sounds like an lit-crit cliche.

And of course "jbor" misstates once again Hollander's aims, and highlights
his/her own inconsistency -- if "jbor" can look to Pynchon's text and put
together other stories based on Pynchon's references, what's to stop other
readers and critics from doing the same? 

[snip "jbor"]