Whither the P-List?

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michel Ryckx" <michel.ryckx at freebel.net>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 25, 2002 4:08 PM
Subject: Re: Whither the P-List?


> There's a small expression in 'Mortality and Mercy' : 'je ne sais quoi
> de sinistre'.  14 years later, mr. Pynchon uses it again, in his big
> one.
>
> The Mickey and Sylvia song from 1956 is alluded to (at? -don't know
> what's correct) in Vineland and mentioned in the Marquez review.
>
> In mr. Pynchon's work, consistent as it is from the very beginning of
> his literary career, many levels & many influences get together.
> [talking about kicking in open doors . . .]  The current thread on
> 'Dixon & the Slave Driver' proves to be very fruitful just because of
> this aspect.  The incident is being discussed from many different
> angles, and offers the interested p-lister all these things we like so
> much in our man's novels.  That is why I agree with Dave Monroe who
> wrote: 'keep the [p] in the p-list'.
>
> This is also why I think it's not a good idea for having a read like the
> 'Education', as Kai, uncapitalized, asked: in that particular case, the
> discussion -as far as it will concern Thomas Pynchon- will only take a
> look into one of the many influences, in this case: into a (not even:
> the) cultural or philosophical level.  One could easily develop parallel
> reasons for not discussing Moby-Dick, Milton, Pale Fire --nabokv-l will
> provide those interested with nearly 800 posts on Pale Fire alone, by
> the way--, Fariña, etc., however important all of these authors and/or
> novels and/or ideas may have been for mr. Pynchon.
>
> Taking a closer look at the early work will show us how a young boy
> grows into the clothing he likes best;  how he, with trial and error,
> develops his own stylistic devices --on which point f.i. the
> Nabokov-Pynchon angle may come in; how he gets away from his literary
> heroes of the fifties, and finds his own themes and how to express them:
> us and them, ambiguities, allusions, rituals, sacred & profane, the
> jokes & puns, the names he uses, his scientific influences, and how he
> is a child of his own time.
>
> OK, the early stories may be not the best ever written, but they could
> learn us a lot about his later works.  What would a comparison between
> 'Under the Rose' and V. learn us?  Just curious.
>
> Then there is that bizarre Introduction to Slow Learner, written by a
> man who is sure he earned his place in literature, and so is able to
> write condescendingly about his own work.  It may be a kind of fiction.
>
> I'm favouring an SLSL --which will not take very long-- as a fine
> hors-d'oeuvre for (good idea Otto, Toby) Vineland.
>
> Michel.
>

Don't take that for granted that an SLSL wouldn't take long, Michel, but I
agree about the "fine hors-d'oeuvre", and an SLSL preceding VLVL would be ok
to me.

Thanks for the Arte-tip. I will have to work that night, so it's gonna be
put on vcr.

Otto

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