Pynchon's fat novel repudiated?

[umberto rossi]

In data 9 May 2004, verso le 12:24, Dave Monroe si trovò a scrivere 
su Re: Pynchon's  fat novel repudiated?:

> Who ARE the big-name contemporary writers in, say, Italy, or anywhwere
> else (or here, for that matter, I don't really keep up)?  

Big in terms of sales? Ludlum, Crichton, that is some of the American 
bestsellers. There is also that guy who write procedural thrillers, 
whazzisname... can't remember. Then Camilleri, who is our bestselling 
crime novelist (also translated into English). Some short-
living/lived fads, but those do not deserve being mentioned. King, 
Stephen. Carlotto (Italian, politically engaged crime writer, this is 
a good moment for our crime fiction). 

Big in terms of prestige? At the moment Carver, Franzen, David Foster 
Wallace, DeLillo in part (he's I guess one of those whose name is 
often dropped but can't say if those who drop his name really read 
what he has written). Eugenides. 

Cult writers (I limity myself to the US and Italian writers): 
Lansdale, Gaiman (uh oh, hes a Brit), Dick Philip K. (not a living 
one, I know, yet...), Evangelisti (Italian).

> Who are the Americans who break
> through elsewhere?  

See above.

> In, say, a course on American Literature, or Modern and/or Contemporary
> American Fiction, what gets taught?  

In our universities they do not teach Pynchon, they teach The Crying 
of Lot 49, then The Crying of Lot 49, plus The Crying of Lot 49 and 
The Crying of Lot 49. I guess the reason why is that it's shorter. 
American fiction after '45 is not taught systematically. On the other 
hand there is a real Henry James worship in our academia, plus the 
High Modernists and the classics of the American Renaissance. Some 
specialists focus on Chicano writers, gender issues, Native 
Americans, etc. When they give a try at postmodernism it's usually 
Barth and Gass and sometime Sukenik, but it's rather infrequent.

> In, again, Italy, or
> anywhere?  

I can tell you what happens here. Other foreigners might add their 
bit.

> And are we all reading Pynchon in English,
> or has he been translated into whatever language any
> of you might happen to be native speakers of?  

Everything he wrote has been translated. Not all translation are 
excellent, but they're mostly decent. The Italian M&D is quite 
heavier than the original, but there are no mistakes.

> Me, I know virtually nothing about Italian literature beyond, at our
> end, at least, Eco and Calvino. Earlier, Svevo.  Before that, well,
> The Renaissance, so ... 

You might add Carlo Emilio Gadda (the greatest), Curzio Malaparte, 
Dino Buzzati, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Leonardo Sciascia, Gesualdo 
Bufalino, Cesare Pavese, Andrea Camilleri (his historical novels), 
Michele Mari, Giancarlo De Cataldo (one outstanding novel, Romanzo 
criminale), Luigi Pirandello, Luigi Meneghello (though he lives in 
the UK), Primo Levi, Emilio Lussu, Ennio Flaiano (he wrote the 
screenplay of Fellini's La dolce vita), and there are several holes 
in this list, and I am listing only novelists/short story writers. 
All of them belonging to the 20th century. 

umberto rossi
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