NP Solace

[Bandwraith at aol.com]

In a message dated 9/25/01 8:43:15 PM, carswell at mediaone.net writes:

<< Stewart Brand recommended 'Gravity's Rainbow' in one of the Whole Earth

Catalogs and I worked through it first in 1974 or 1975, then reread it along

with 'V' and "The Crying of Lot 49' every year or so for the next ten

years... never  really found anyone to share them with, but they were a

great solace. I ordered a new copy of GR online four weeks ago to replace a

worn and yellow 1974 Bantam edition, and found myself one 8:00 AM in tears >>

I still have my '73 Viking Compass, sans cover, yellowed pages fluttering 
away like autumn leaves. It was the only drug that could reliably 
re-establish my sanity after the smoldering pyre of the sixties.

I think that M&D, though, for those equipped to appreciate it, is a "better" 
novel, nearly perfect, cooly celestial- but without the timing of GR. And 
maybe that's what establishes Pynchon as a great writer- so sensitive to the 
times- like painting on wet plaster, yet able finally to transcend and 
capture the timeless.

Meanwhile, airliners like bluejays, assault our solace- send us messages like 
bursts of light from beyond, like snowballs to starr our outbuildings...