Leslie Fielder wimps out

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Toby G Levy" <tobylevy at juno.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2003 3:30 PM
Subject: Leslie Fielder wimps out


> From an interview in today's Salon:
>
> Q: How about Pynchon?
>
> "I've had a tough time with Pynchon.

Who not.

> I liked him very much when I first read him. I liked him less with each
book.

Quite contrary to my own impression. I wish Fiedler would have been a little
more precise about the "books" here. Which did he like, which are the ones
he disliked?

> He got denser and more complex
> in a way that didn't really pay off.  You had to work twice as hard for
> half as many returns."
>

I've put a good deal of work into _Mason & Dixon_ (reading it twice in
English and once in German) and got a lot out of it in return. Wish I could
say that about a German novel from the last five years too.

> Q: How about Don DeLillo?
>
> "I don't really like his writing much. He does many different things. In
> some ways, he never seems committed to me to what he is writing. Very
> nice surfaces, but he's got nothing underneath. I keep feeling I'm unfair
> to him. I talk to many people, and he's one of the few contemporary
> novelists who still has enthusiastic followers. "
>
>

After finishing _Mao II_, _Underworld_ and _Running Dog_, having begun
_Libra_ (postponed for Shem's _House of God_ and Gibson/Sterling's _The
Difference Machine_) I cannot say that I generally disagree to Fiedler about
DeLillo. Especially the "unfair"-remark reminds me of my own feelings and
impressions sometimes while reading _Underworld_.

Pynchon and DeLillo compared in this I have to say that I still can slip
into any Pynchon & enjoy very easily. I'm not sure if my enthusiasm for
DeLillo goes that far.

But thanks for sending me to Salon today where I've found this:
http://www.salon.com/audio/2000/10/05/zinn/index.html

and could download three mp3's by Howard Zinn, excerpts from Zinn's _A
People's History of the United States_.

Otto

Fiedler link:
http://www.texaschapbookpress.com/newmutants01.htm

__________________________________________________________________

Gesendet von Yahoo! Mail - http://mail.yahoo.de
Weihnachts-Einkäufe ohne Stress! http://shopping.yahoo.de