SLSL "TSR" "what I dislike about my writing "

[davemarc]

From: pynchonoid <pynchonoid at yahoo.com>

> So sez Mr. Pynchon in the SL Intro, about "TSR":
>
> "Most of what I dislike about my writing is present
> here in embroyo, as well as in more advanced forms. I
> failed to recognize, just for openers, that the main
> character's problem was real and interesting enough to
> generate a story on its own. Apparently I felt I had
> to put on a whole extra overlay of rain images and
> references to "The Waste Land" and _A Farewell to
> Arms."  I was operating on the motto "Make it
> literary," a piece of bad advice I made up all by
> myself and then took" (4)
>
> If he dislikes the practice of adding to his works "a
> whole extra overlay" of images and references from
> other works of art, I wonder why he continues to do
> this as a writer, because this characterizes all of
> his writing that's been published to date.
>
I don't see him admitting a dislike of adding "a whole extra overlay" as
much as admitting that he failed to see how the story could have been
generated strictly from the main character's predicament.  It seems that he
feels that he was overly concerned with dressing the story with "literary"
qualities and not concerned enough with storytelling basics.

In many ways, this seems to be a fair (but not definitive) self-critique.  A
strong case can be made that Vineland and Mason & Dixon reveal a greater
willingness to structure a story around characterization and traditional
plotting.  The "literary" allusions are there but arguably less dominant.

Of course, there's potential irony in the fact that Pynchon built his
reputation and his following using "bad advice" he later came to reject or
at least modify.  But he does seem to have adjusted his writing in a manner
consistent with this self-critique.

d.