Religious Fundamentalism in Orwell and Pynchon

[Paul Nightingale]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On
> Behalf Of Paul Mackin
> Sent: 19 May 2003 12:02
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Re: Religious Fundamentalism in Orwell and Pynchon
> 
> On Mon, 2003-05-19 at 01:57, Paul Nightingale wrote:
> > Once again, a complaint that P didn't write the Foreword his critics
> > wanted to read ...
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > I guess as suggested by Terrance and Rob's inputs here the Pincher
> > > doesn't always think things through too well. A blessing since a
> > > novelist who tries to be at the same time a philosopher and/or
> > historian
> > > isn't going to be a great success.
> > >
> > >
> >
> > But not to worry, it's "a blessing" that P doesn't think too well!
We'd
> > hate his "success" to be undermined by too much thinking, after all.
> >
> > One might state the obvious, and say the Foreword is a 'mere' 20
pages
> > or so, a short story rather than M&D. Clearly another 40, or even a
> > hundred, pages would allow P to "think things through" better. And
then
> > some people, I suppose, would complain that his wild rambling could
use
> > careful, even brutal, cruel-to-be-kind, editing.
> >
> >
> 
> 
> This is about as dotty a piece of wisdom as I've heard here in almost
a
> week.
> .
> 
> P.

Gee, "almost a week", huh? Guess I'll have to try harder. The
competition's tough, but that's no excuse. Perhaps you could inspire me
by explaining why it's a good idea for a novelist not to think too much
...