Curve of the Artist

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

* If someone would ask me: You would have wanted Thomas Pynchon to become after
the Rainbow some real reclusive, walking barefoot as a Peyote saint in Mexiko?,
I'd think about this, for a couple of days or so, and then answer: Not really,
the later novels, though partly pretty disappointing for the Rainbow aficionado,
do not only contain many great sentences (even - think M&D's St. Helena - scenes),
they also enrich our understanding of the author's earlier work. But basically
it's V1 and V2 (= GR). For me there is no doubt that V, together with Buddenbrooks,
can be seen as the 20th century's best debut novel: V has vision plus a map. With 
CoL49 it's difficult; LA noir style, good grasp at cultural changes, but then 
again Oedipa Maas is, actually, built after a man and, for that matter, like 
Proust's Albertine. So seductive for male writers, this female perspective stuff,
yet - except for rare wonders like the Penelope chapter of Ulysses - it hardly
ever works. Certainly not in Vineland where the implausibility of the character
named Free'n'Easy is ruining the whole thing. And then Pynchon's humor lost the 
acid sharpness it had in glorious Rainbow times; M&D is even less funny than 
Vineland. Me decided not to expect too much from the coming 'Hilbert Novel' -- 

And you? Kai +