Novel-Gazing

[s~Z]

"It is of course precisely in such episodes
of mental traveling that writers are known to do good
work, sometimes even their best, solving formal
problems, getting advice from Beyond, having
hypnagogic adventures that with luck can be recovered
later on. Idle dreaming is often of the essence of
what we do."

I think this is what sets great art in general, and Pynchon's in particular,
apart from any one element in the alchemical stew that is the finished
product. Invisible forces, beyond the author's egoic intent, are at work in
the creative process, taking the prima materia (which includes philosophy,
history, autobiography, politics, economics, etc) and transforming it into
something which transcends the working materials. An openpsyched reader can
be taken into this force field in a way that transports him or her into a
transegoic state in which new perceptual, conceptual, prenuptial, and
voluptual capabilities are awakened. That's why they call it a novel.