SLSL Intro "It is only fair to warn ..."

[Michel Ryckx]

  Dave quoted:

"It is only fair to warn even the most kindly disposed of readers that 
there are some mighty tiresome passages here, juvenile and delinquent 
too. At the same time, my best hope is that, pretentious, goofy and 
ill-considered as they get now and then, these stories will still be of 
use with all their flaws intact, as illustrative of typical problems in 
entry-level fiction, and cautionary about some practices which younger 
writers might prefer to avoid." (SL, "Intro," p. 4)

By using rather heavy words  ('mighty tiresome', 'juvenile and 
delinquent' -nice wording by the way),  we may overlook the word 'some' 
in the same phrase.  It is one of the many stylistical devices mr. 
Pynchon uses: he distracts our attention from a certain word -in this 
case: some- and then goes on, in this case, concentrating on the flaws 
in the stories and offering us a way to read these stories: as a lesson 
in bad writing.  We are invited to look at the flaws in his early work. 
 In the very first phrase, he's already manipulating us, as every great 
writer does.  The form is an 'Introduction'; we are not  to expect a 
piece of fiction.

One of the many questions, raised by this Introduction -we do not have 
to provide an answer; we've got all the time we need- is:

Should we consider this introduction as a piece of fiction?

Nice SLSL kick off, Dave.

Michel.