Walk your way

[Tim Strzechowski]

Millison said:

> While I don't claim any unique insight into Pynchon's
> intentions, based on the broad range of material he
> brings into his books, the broad spectrum of genres
> and literary techniques he applies to his material,
> the vast number of voices and perspectives he adopts,
> his eclectic taste -- I suspect he wants people to be
> able to respond to his works in many different ways,
> and, further, I suspect (but of course don't know for
> sure) that one reason he distances himself from
> academic criticism of his work is precisely because of
> the arrogant and elitist approach taken by some
> critics in that quarter.  Some readers who
> consistently try to squeeze Pynchon into this or that
> literary-critical-theoretical box don't seem to stop
> and think that Pynchon may in fact be laughing, at
> times, at that sort of discourse  (hence something
> like that Deleuze and Guattari Fake Book in Vineland,
> perhaps), even as he also, at times, seems to
> understand the value of upholding many points of view
> and a sophisticated narrative approach.
>

Well said.  And frequently the literary discussions we experience (and that I even see among students or colleagues) center around readers who either seek a definitive answer or think that there is a definitive answer out there to find in the first place -- squeezing the universe into a ball,
so to speak.  I sometimes wonder if it's more a left-brainer trait, i.e. a tendancy of the math- or science-related thinkers, who seek to locate the blacks and whites in an ultimately gray text.  Of course, I know a few Englishers who think that way too, so . . .

"Getting it" in terms of literature is such a futile activity, imho. The beautiful thing about literature, rather than a theorem or a scientific law, is that is exposes possibilities rather than definites. There's a time and a place for the definites in life, don't get me wrong.  But we need the means
by which possibilities are raised, for the mind can reel with the ecstasies of  such possibility in a way that definites can never offer.  That is how we move closer to Truth (note: I didn't say "find").

BTW, good quotes supporting this notion, Otto!

Pynchon does just that -- he raises possibilites for interpretation, but makes said interpretation ambiguous (which is why I suggested _The Confidence Man_ as an apt follow-up to a Pynchon text).  Not too many writers can pull this off with such aplomb, but when they do -- as Pynchon
does -- they truly sparkle!

Tim


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"The more pity that fools may not speak wisely what wise men do foolishly."
                                                            -- William Shakespeare
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