newbie alert

John Bailey johnbonbailey at hotmail.com
Mon Sep 9 19:32:23 CDT 2002


A p-fan for Life...as in 25 years to...

Depends on the person, doesn't it? I wouldn't recommend GR for entree to a 
lot of people unless I knew they were pretty well read already. Then again, 
I guess I might recommend it with a no-obligation clause - start it, see how 
you like it, if it's too dense, go back and read COL49 or Vineland or best 
of all, V.

One tiny point which makes all the difference, imo: GR is pretty big. 
Reading it can feel like you're making a commitment, and there's the 
resultant guilt if you give up, let it slide, pick up some other book for a 
quick read while GR lies angry and betrayed on a shelf back home. It needn't 
be that way. It took me two tries, a few of Pynchon's books have, and it 
mainly comes down to not the ability to understand it or whatever, but 
simply the willingness to put in the time and effort to make that 
commitment. It's a big book! It takes a long time to read. Unless you know 
it's going to pay off, maybe you wouldn't be willing to devote that time to 
it. I started it when I was younger, didn't know where it was going exactly, 
was enjoying it but had lots of other things to do, and it dipped in the 
priority list. Read a bunch of other, shorter P works over ensuing years, 
and then I knew, yep, it'll be worth going back to GR. So I did.

Just some thoughts.


>From: "Steve Maas" <tyronemullet at hotmail.com>
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: newbie alert
>Date: Mon, 09 Sep 2002 11:46:22 -0700
>
>The p-list can be divided into two groups--those who consider GR a tedious 
>chore that's good for you, sort of like dental floss for the mind, and 
>those who consider it the most fun you can have with your clothes on.
>
>Steve Maas
>
>cfa wrote:
>>I have it on good authority that Steve and Dave favor hair shirts
>>and high humidity...assuming that you don't savor heat rash, stick
>>with your hunch....though I started with V - knowing nothing about
>>p, I would recommend you do so with either COL49 or >Vineland 
>>...............then detour to WARLOCK (Oakley Hall),
>>before throwing yourself against GR......
>
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. 
>http://www.hotmail.com




_________________________________________________________________
Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. 
http://www.hotmail.com




More information about the Pynchon-l mailing list