SLSL Intro "Chicago School"

[jbor]

on 8/11/02 2:11 AM, s~Z at keithsz at concentric.net wrote:

>> Are there authors who speak of lit-crit as an influence in their writing?
> 
> Pynchon certainly does: <
> 
> I see a reference to lit-crit, and vague general comments. Nothing about its
> *influence on his development as a writer* except in the most superficial
> way.
> 

Well, I'd say it's a fairly narrow viewfinder that you're looking through.

In the previous paragraph Pynchon specifically talks about his writing:

"At the simplest level it had to do with language. We were encouraged from
many directions. ... It was actually OK to write like this. The effect was
exciting, liberating, strongly positive. It was not a case of either/or, but
an expansion of possibilities. ...

  In its literary version it shaped up as traditional vs. Beat fiction. ...
There was a "Chicago School" of literary criticism, for example, which had a
lot of people's attention and respect. ... "What happened at Chicago" became
shorthand for some unimaginable subvversive threat. There were many other
such disputes. Against the undeniable power of tradition, we were attracted
by ... etc etc." (pp6-7)

> jbor does a pro-lit-crit reading.

No. All I did was cite the relevant text from the 'Intro'. No batteries
included. But I would note now that Pynchon writing in the early '80s does
distance himself somewhat ("a lot of people's attention and respect") from
the "Chicago School" even while detailing the dispute (tradition vs. Beat)
which it formed a part of, and how it was one of things happening at the
time that he was aware of and that "encouraged" him to write in a different
way. The point he makes here seems to be that the contemporary critics who
recognised and upheld the writing of Kerouac and co. as exciting and
innovative and "literary" suddenly made the Beat style and vision legitimate
ground for younger "serious" writers to pick up on as well.

And let's not forget that Pynchon had decided, after all, to switch over and
become an English major.

best