McHoul & Wills' chapter Re: SLSL Intro "Almost But Not Quite Me ..."

[Dave Monroe]

>From Roy Arthur Swanson, "Postmodernist Criticism of
Pynchon," Science Fiction Studies No. 55, Vol. 18,
Part 3 (Nov. 1991) ...

"Chapter 5 is a profound reading of Pynchon's
introduction to Slow Learner, asking 'what is it
(preface, story, autobiography)? who writes, or is
written (author, narrator, character)? and by what
function of writing does it work, what theory of
meaning?' (133). Where John Dugdale is satisfied to
quote from or refer to the introduction, or
extrapolate from it Pynchon's tentative attitude
toward Modernism (108-109), McHoul and Wills excavate
from it the avatars of Writing. Their theoretical
focus is difference and transference, recognizable as
problems of translation and applicable as
autobiographical distortion and deception. Pynchon is
observed to maintain his privacy by concealing himself
in what he says about himself and, also, 'as with
uncertainty in particle physics' (155), to change the
pertinence of the self observed by the very act of
observation. The authors look upon their reading as a
methodological writing of Pynchon. The methodology is
exemplary and can exegetically and diegetically write
many modern literary artists."

http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/review_essays/swans55.htm

Dugdale, by the way, was next up for me, then the
hysteria broke out here, so ... so, again, not an
endorsement nor a condemnation.  Just something I
stumbled across on the topic at hand, is all ...

__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
http://mailplus.yahoo.com