Gaddis and Pynchon

[MalignD at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/20/02 4:51:22 PM, millison at online-journalist.com writes:

<< It's a reading of the landscape--one you clearly haven't made.

<<You can't possibly know this.>>

True, but you seldom if ever have anything to say about other writers.  Plus, 
you could simply say whether you have or have not read Gaddis or the other 
writers mentioned in this discussion.  Or give your insights.  It would seem 
you haven't read them and so have no insights.

>To say that Pynchon is--by some great measure--wittier, more skilled,
>more intelligent than Nabokov, Bellow, Roth, Garcia-Marquez, and others--is
>ignorant.

<<I haven't said any of these things, of course.>>

This post was addressed to TobyLevy, primarily, not you.


<<Who are you talking to, other than yourself and your straw man?>>

Tobylevy.

> It deserves ridicule.

<<Keep telling yourself that, if it helps you rationalize the way you aproach
this topic.>>

It deserves ridicule.

<<A less elitist approach, imo, is to respect other people's tastes and
preferences. >>

I'll respect the tastes of people whose tastes I find deserve respect.  If 
you find that elitist, fine.  We're arguing literature here, not making 
people feel good. 

<<Somebody with more refined taste than yourself may very well
ridicule your likes and dislikes -- that's probably why you make such a big
deal about this, come to think of it.  It wouldn't do to be caught enjoying
something that somebody else might consider inferior, would it. >>

This is not something I worry over.  You must be thinking of yourself and 
Andrew Dinn.