SLSL "TSR" death & sex

[William Zantzinger]

--- pynchonoid <pynchonoid at yahoo.com> wrote:
> re "TSR", in the Intro, TRP sez:
> 
> "In 'The Small Rain' characters are found dealing
> with
> death in pre-adult ways. They evade: they sleep
> late,
> they seek euphemisms. When they do mention death
> they
> try to make with the jokes. Worst of all, they hook
> it
> up with sex."  (5)
> 
> Again, if I read this correctly, Pynchon would seem
> to
> be bucking a trend, certainly in Hemingway, the
> author
> he seems to lampoon most savagely in "TSR".  I
> wonder
> if he means to say here that it's just not right to
> link sex and death?  That this is one of those
> things
> he mentioned a few paragraphs earlier in the Intro,
> another element of "most of what I dislike about my
> writing", that he continues to link sex and death in
> his writing up to the 1984 present day and he
> doesn't
> like that aspect of his writing?  Or that here in
> his
> first published story he just does it ineptly? Or
> something else?



Is your confusion the product of a poorly written
Introduction? Or the product of a  deliberately and
brilliantly  ambiguous Introduction? Or what? 

"Most of what I dislike about my writing is present
here (TSR) in embryo, as well as in more advanced
forms."

"My writing" means the way I write. 


What are these things, most of which are present in
TSR in embryo and more advanced forms, that P
dislikes? 

He talks about what he dislikes about TSR. 

1. failure to recognize that the characters problem
was real and interesting enough to generate a story on
its own. I agree with this assessment. Levine's
problem is very real and quite interesting and it is
what makes the story a good one. Young Tom does good
work on Levine and his problem, but for some reason he
doesn't feel that Levine and his problem are enough. 

2.  so he piles stuff (overlay and allusion) on the
tale, trying to make it literary,  and nearly crushes
it. 

3. Bad ear. 

4. defective way in which the narrator deals with the
subject of death. (I don't think he says  that the way
the young characters deal with death, i.e., hooking it
up with sex, is something he dislikes about the
story). 

5. fancy language and self-censorship makes it hard
for the reader to read the sexual encounter scene at
the tale's end. 


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