Woods on DFW in The New Republic

[Richard Romeo]

Hi all-

 

Though I quibble with James Woods critiques of Pynchon, I have to say I
think he gets it right when discussing DFW's work (IMHO)

 

The gibbous moon, not full but fuller than a semicircle, is a part that
represents a whole, and there are evenings when we seem to "see" the
shadow of this wholeness: we naturally complete the circle. This is not
a bad emblem for how fiction--indeed, any mimetic art--represents a
world without needing to offer us all of it. Fiction is a picture-making
art, and we understand that pictures are only made frames around the
potentially limitless canvas of the unmade. Obviously enough, fiction
that took place in real time would resemble the conundrum explored by
Josiah Royce and Borges, that of the map that is the same size as the
landscape it represents....

 

 

Richard 

 

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