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

[pynchonoid]

> 
> Rilke, Rainer Maria.  Letters to a Young Poet.
>    Trans. M.D. Herter Norton.  New York:
>    W.W. Norton & Co., 1993 (1929).

A beautiful book.



> "... one of those episodes of middle-aged
> tranquility,


They do occur.  Unfortunately, they are like that
long-awaited state of emotional maturity which usually
kicks in at about age 29, but only lasts 15 minutes or
so, and may not return for years and years.



> in which I now pretend to have reached a level of
> clarity about the young writer I was back then.  I
> mean I can't very well just 86 this guy from my
> life. 


>From the writer who could create a Dr. Hilarious in
COL49, in '67, to the writer who could provide a
support quote for a book by James Hillman in the '80s
(not sure of that date now) -- Pynchon's understanding
of human development and psychology seem to have
developed along with his fiction. Being able to look
back with clarity and get a bigger-picture grasp of
the way one's life has progressed, as I see that
operating in others, especially men and women much
older than myself -- that's one of the gifts of
growing older, imo. Coming to terms and being able to
accept the person one was at a younger age, no easy
task. I'd say the picture that Pynchon paints here of
himself at 47 is that of a wise man, as well as the
Pynchonian wise guy so many readers love. 




=====
<http://www.pynchonoid.blogspot.com/>

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