Chix dig Infinite Jest more than Pynchon/Vollmann

[Paul Mackin]

On Sat, 2004-09-25 at 11:08, Mark A. Douglas wrote:
> GR was published same year as Fear of Flying. 

Oh yes. Erica Jong and her zipless xxxx. Good example.

>  So, I'm asking:  what's the
> correlation to the sexual revolution?

I was just noting that GR came out in the '70s when all hell broke loose
on the American middle class sexual front. It was wonderful but it
couldn't last. Either God got mad and sent AIDS, or, more likely, people
got tired of having their actual lives as well their reading lives
dominated by sex. Sex was acting like a Gresham's Law--bad money
(currency) drives out good--in the human interaction realm.

I'm not saying that GR was a VICTIM of the sexual revolution, only that
it's treatment of male/female relations was influenced by that event.
Pynchon lived in the same world as all the rest of us.

> 73 was a politcally charged time, but the freedoms encountered in the 60's
> were only beginning to hit the mainstream, that I'll give you;

Yes, this seems correct.

>  if I'm
> understanding your point, and I may not be, IJ hits with readers because
> they can relate, whereas with GR, they can't. 

Yes, there is more emotional content in IJ to relate to than in GR.  


>  Which doesn't begin to
> explain why Mason&Dixon would be more of a hit, imho.

M&D may also have had a little more emotional tug to it than GR. More
for women (and not only women) to latch onto. Many people of both sexes
found GR not their cup of tea. Here we are only trying to discover why
more women than men would reject the book. (we may also be trying to
discover why P is in general more liked by men than women--if this is
actually the case--we have nothing but the p-list and anecdotal evidence
to go on)

I realize I make a lot of broad generalizations. Think they are useful
nevertheless. On the p-list one must make points telegrapically.
Otherwise nobody bothers.

What is more telegraphic than BEST TEN LISTS?