SLSL Intro (A Couple-Three Bonzos

[pynchonoid]

--- Dave Monroe <davidmmonroe at yahoo.com> wrote:
> But I'm genuinely curious, esp. in your case, in the
> case of others here, what do you think IS going on
> in
> these works, texts, what have you?  

At 5:02 PM -0800 11/9/02, Dave Monroe wrote:
>But I'm genuinely curious, esp. in your case, in the
>case of others here, what do you think IS going on in
>these works, texts, what have you?  


I the risk of tripping the same clichedetector that
Keith triggered: TRP is telling the truth and playing
word games and putting himself in the text and hiding
himself and referring to many other works that provide
a second-story/subtext to this one and having fun all
at the same time.  In among the fancy footwork he
seems to get in a serious dig at the way the monied
power-holding class in the US have manipulated racial
attitudes in a divide-and-conquer strategy to keep the
rest of "us" (Pynchon's word) poor and powerless, and
expresses his regret at the failure of thd '60s
revolution. He situates himself in a lineage of
American wanderer/writers that extends back to the
"pagan" poets -- suspect of worshipping the old gods
-- of 13th century Europe.  Despite a high-powered Ivy
League education with a degree in English, he says he
learned most about writing from listening to American
voices and from American non-verbal reality, and since
one of the biographical facts that seems to be
accepted about TRP is that he spent time writing in
Mexico, I'm assuming he means Mexico in that
"America", too. He slams a novel, COL49, considered a
masterpiece by many readers although qualified as
"minor" by some.  He's not at all straightforward as
he folds in allusions and references and dances
through his twisted syntax. A reader's minefield , or
-- in honor of the upcoming season (which he has
worked into several of his novels) -- an Advent
calendar, open up the little doors, see what pops up.

-Doug

 

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

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