FW: SLSL Intro, incl., "As Nearly as I Can Remember"

[vze422fs at verizon.net]

----------
From: vze422fs at verizon.net
Date: Sat, 02 Nov 2002 16:57:36 -0500
To: Michel Ryckx <michel.ryckx at freebel.net>
Subject: Re: SLSL Intro, incl., "As Nearly as I Can Remember"

on 11/2/02 2:58 PM, Michel Ryckx at michel.ryckx at freebel.net wrote:

> Nice post, but I cannot agree with your conclusion:
> 
> Malign:
> 
>> [snip]
>> 
>> I think, then, it is far more likely that Pynchon is evaluating candidly.
>> 
> . . . when one considers his position in the literary landscape: he
> already has earned his place, whatever his next prose.  He, therefore,
> can afford to be, what's the word, self-deprecating, which in this case,
> may be a code-word for irony.
> 
> Of course I cannot read mr. Pynchon's mind.  But he must have been aware
> of the fact that whatever he would write in this introduction, some'd
> take a closer look.  Irony cannot be ruled out.
> 
> Introducing 'Slow Learner' was, anyway, not much work to earn a quick buck.
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Michel.
> 
I'm going to fall down on the candid evaluation side. Any irony that I
detect in this can be attributed to polite self-deprecation. It would be
unseemly for an author of Pynchon's stature to blow his own muted post horn
blatantly.

Pynchon later cites specific examples of flaws, notably "bad ear syndrome".

"My sense of regional accents in those days was primitive at best....Being
from the North, what I was hearing as a 'southern accent' was really this
uniform service accent....an error also noticeable in movies of the time."

He then cites the barroom scene in "Small Rain".

He's absolutely right. Northerners do homogenize Southern accents. Regional
and class differences in speech that would be obvious to a Southerner are
often overlooked by outsiders with little experience in the area. His
confession seems genuine.

Peace,
Joe