VLVL II: Allergy to the medicine

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Malignd" <malignd at yahoo.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2004 9:17 PM
Subject: RE: VLVL II: Allergy to the medicine


> <<Why blame Pynchon for your inability to appreciate
> this novel?  Plenty of readers have no trouble at all
> enjoying it along with the rest of his work.>>
>
> Plenty of readers have no trouble at all enjoying The
> Deadly Embrace along with the rest of Jackie Collins's
> work, for what that's worth--approximately as much as
> your dopey comment.
>
> I don't appreciate Vineland much because, like Ghetta
> here, I think it's not very good.  If that's blaming
> Pynchon, well:  he wrote the fucking thing.
>

To me it's like every Pynchon, the more I read it and get into it the more I
like it.

I like the friendly criticism of the 60's generation for failing to easily.
I like the description of pre- or proto-fascist America given in the novel;
the snitch culture taken from the example of the former GDR -- when I
remember it correctly Michael Naumann has told that Pynchon wrote parts of
"Vineland" while driving through the GDR.

I like some of the characters, especially the children and I don't like
Brock Vond because I know the type.

If it's a good book in the sense of a literary masterstroke I don't know,
but I seldom read bestsellers. The best I can do is to apply to a book what
I've learned about interpreting books and then I like a scene like the
reversal of the poles in the Brock-Roscoe-relation because I see that he
sticks to his style.

To answer Kai's recent question regarding the forthcoming (?) novel: no
expectations, just Pynchon.

Otto