Pynchon's fat novel repudiated?

[Malignd]

<<But the three novels' mixed reception was
significant. Their “failure” was a bellwether of
changes in readers' attention spans. The relentless
rise of the Internet, the casual nature of e-mail, the
picked-up pace of our electronic world, has made busy
lives even busier.>>

This seems to me far too facile, not to say confused
in its argument.  His evidence against A Man in Full
is its mixed reviews--notably from Mailer and
Updike--which has nothing to do with the attention
spans of readers; and I think in fact it sold pretty
well.

M&D is not the sort of book likely to draw a large
audience, pre- or post-Internet.  The same is probably
true of Underworld, if to a lesser degree.

This also ignores The Corrections in 2002 which sold
well and is, if not as long as the others, still
nearly 600 pages.



	
		
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs  
http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover