this is a man's world (was: Re: Top TV)

[Otto]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul Mackin" <paul.mackin at verizon.net>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2004 4:17 PM
Subject: Re: this is a man's world (was: Re: Top TV)


> On Thu, 2004-09-23 at 07:40, Otto wrote:
> > Will :
> > > When Bekah -- a member of list even -- 
> > > said that she found GR "yucky,"
> > > she made my point quite succinctly.
> > >
> > > The critical bib don't convince me.
> > >
> > > w
> > >
> >
> > Well, parts of GR necessarily are "yucky" (had to look up the word)
> >  given its topics. War is "yucky," as Abu Ghraib or Beslan show.
> >
>
> I think I might say that infants in diapers are yucky. War is hell.
>

So GR is like an infant in diapers? I had less problems with my daughter
changing her diapers than with reading GR. And one day changing diapers
ended, reading GR never ends.

> > The critical bib just showed some examples. I think Rob's right in what
he
> > says about it.
> >
> > The need for "characters fully fleshed out" sounds to my ears like being
> > somewhat outdated. Tyrone Slothrop's story is a story of someone looking
for
> > who "he" is.
>
> Old fashioned? Not so sure we can relegate strong interesting
> characterization to the out of date. Fleshed out characters keep us
> alert because we are interested in what happens to "real" people. And
> the alertness so generated carries over to our reception of the
> inherently less exciting, purely intellectual or aesthetic aspects of
> the work, in all liklihood most worthwhile part.
>
> Actually I think Slothrop IS fleshed out in his own way. Imagine if
> Pynchon had created him as someone who is led to rockets using, say, his
> nose rather than his dingdong. We would lose interest in the proceedings
> early on. (Doberman and German Shephard lovers might disagree)
>

Lol (no dogs allowed here)!

Isn't there a connection between a man's nose and his dingdong (nice word).

>
> > I've just finished Franzen's "The Corrections" -- maybe we could hear
some
> > opinions on those characters (who are surely more "fleshy" than
Pynchon's),
> > especially Denise:
> >
> > "Life, in her experience, had a kind of velvet luster. You looked at
> > yourself from one perspective and all you saw was weirdness. Move your
head
> > a little bit, though, and everything looked reasonably normal." (TC, p.
404)
> >
> > "She had a thing for a straight woman who was married to a man whom she
> > herself might have liked to marry. It was a reasonably hopeless case."
> > (ibid, p. 431)
>
> Loved the book

Thanks, everybody I was telling about it said: no thanks, no family stories
please. I was already beginning to feel weird for having fun while reading
it.

> and remember a little about this apsect of Denise's
> character. Not enough to comment on but only to say that it sounds like
> her situation here, though mildly hopeless, is not all that unusual for
> a modern woman.
>
>

Is it so much different than the situation of a "modern" man (whatever this
is)?

Otto