The Author as Science Guy

[Paul Mackin]

Power's problem is that he's a pedestrian writer. Just the opposite of
Pynchon, whose every thought (most every) stirs the imagination. Be it
silly or serious. Powers no doubt knows as much as Pynchon. Maybe more.
But knowledge isn't the issue.

P.

On Tue, 2003-02-18 at 13:12, prozak at anus.com wrote:
> 
> > In seven hefty previous novels, each tautly structured
> > and dense with ideas, Mr. Powers has delved into the
> > arcana of molecular genetics, artificial intelligence,
> > virtual reality and game theory, teasing poetry and
> > suspense from unlikely sources like Bach piano
> > variations, the four nucleotides of DNA and the neural
> > networks of a thinking computer. His books, which
> > include "The Gold Bug Variations" (1991), "Galatea
> > 2.2" (1995) and "Plowing the Dark" (2000), have earned
> > him enviable accolades (he's a MacArthur "genius"
> > grant winner and a perennial finalist for the National
> > Book Critics Circle Award), as well as a cult
> > following in academic circles and flattering
> > comparisons to establishment heavyweights like Don
> > DeLillo and Thomas Pynchon.
> 
> Another postmodern novelist, in the Stanislaw Lem, Vladimir Nabokov, 
> Haruki Murakami, Ivan Klima, Thomas Pynchon, David Foster Wallace, 
> and Don DeLillo method... this guy sounds like an annoying poseur. 
> Could be the article however, which is also written (annoyingly) by 
> someone technically talented, but without taste or judgment.
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Backup Rider of the Apocalypse
> www.anus.com/metal/
> DEATH AND BLACK METAL
> 
>