Vineland underrated

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ghetta Life" <ghetta_outta at hotmail.com>
To: <mikeweaver at gn.apc.org>; <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2003 8:47 PM
Subject: Re: Vineland underrated


>
> >From: Mike Weaver <mikeweaver at gn.apc.org>
> >Vineland IMLWO is a novel [...] where the betrayal is occasioned by the
> >daughter of a strong labour movement/socialist family tradition taking up
> >with and working for the (capitalist) Establishment. The novel ends with
> >the annual gathering of that family, taking the prodigal back into its
> >warmth, thereby reasserting the communal values of the Wobblies and their
> >descendants.
>
> The description above sound like a boring and simplistic morality tale to
> me.  That is ain't the Pynchon I'm used to.  He's all about ambiguity and
> paradox IMHO, but this ain't his best work, so...
>
> Ghetta
>

What are the criteria for a good Pynchon-novel in your opinion?

"As a postmodernist work of fiction, Thomas Pynchon's Vineland exhibits
suspicion toward master-narratives. Through his masterful marriage of plot
and parody, Pynchon debunks many assumptions about life in contemporary
America. Surprisingly, however, Pynchon ultimately surrenders to the
master-narratives, even as he seeks to question and subvert those same
concepts. Vineland concludes with an exchange from one master-narrative to
another, and readers are left feeling both relief and despair. (...)
In Vineland, Pynchon pays considerable attention to master-narratives. He
points out the foolishness of such belief systems by undermining the
reasoning behind them; he accomplishes this through Sister Rochelle's
anecdotes, Zoyd's wedding memories, and his own invention of the Thanatoids.
Curiously, however, Pynchon concludes the novel by trading one
master-narrative for another: Reaganomics for Brock Vond. This trade-off
represents Pynchon's own surrender and his belief that master-narratives are
inescapable. This is entirely appropriate; Vineland, and Pynchon's work in
general, have been labeled as postmodern (Cowart 67): he has, despite his
efforts to deconstruct generalizing belief systems, fallen victim to the
master-narrative of "postmodernism.""
http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/papers_sullivan.html

Otto