Thank Goodness

[tyro tortoise]

--- Cyrus <CyrusGeo at netscape.net> wrote:
> tyro tortoise wrote:
> 
> > If Pynchon is a literary genius why can't he write
> an
> > essay that communicates? While speaking of
> > communication, it seems that Pynchon has forgotten
> > that communicating clearly with others is the
> ultimate
> > goal of composition. The Introduction is poorly
> > written. 
> 
> 
> Forgive me; I can’t see any connection between being
> a literary genius 
> and writing good essays. 

Maybe there is none. 


I don’t expect a noveslist
> to write good  essays. 

Some do and some don't. Pynchon doesn't. 

And, anyway, I don’t expect a novelist to
> write essays the same 
> way he does his novels. 

Me neither. 


That said, I think Pynchon
> chooses to write his 
> essays in a more conversational, every-day tone,
> which, of course, might 
> seem like bad writing, but in fact isn’t. 

It's not the voice or the tone of his essays that's
the problem. 


A reason
> might be that, in 
> writing an essay, all you have to do is convey, as
> you also said, a 
> point of view clearly and effectively (which I still
> think he does, with 
> a personal twist, of course). In writing a novel,
> you have to do a lot 
> more. A good essayist may at best be a great
> philosophical mind, but a 
> literary genius is another thing.
> 
> Cyrus
> 


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