Gothicism in Postmodern Anglo-American Narratives and Media

[severs at fas.harvard.edu]

About 'Slow Learner': I once heard someone speculate it comes from O'Brien
saying to Winston in 1984, "You're a slow learner, aren't you?"  A tenuous
connection, given the clichedness of the phrase, but an especially appealing
possibility after Tom's recent introduction to 1984...

Best,
Jeff



Quoting Rcfchess at aol.com:

>
> On the other hand, "Slow Learner" is rather amusing/ironic, if it's
> self-referential; wonder if it was TP's idea or the publisher's or
> agent's...?!
> Anyone have any idea?
>
> - RF
>
> In a message dated 08/20/2005 10:32:07 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
> michael at michael-hussmann.de writes:
>
> Come to  think of it, Pynchon's own titles aren't the most creative part
> of his  work, are they? Calling a novel "V" after its central, enigmatic
> character,  or "Mason & Dixon", which is, quite surprisingly, about the
> life of  Mason and Dixon -- or "The Cying of Lot 49", which is explained
> only on the  very last page of the novel, and isn't terribly significant
> in itself.  "Gravity's Rainbow" is probably the best of the lot, because
> of its  richness in connotations and because it does relate to central
> themes of  the novel. I get the impression that Pynchon generally doesn't
> care that  much about titles (which is perfectly OK with me).
>
> -  Michael
>
>
> Michael J. Hußmann
>
> E-mail:  michael at michael-hussmann.de
> WWW (personal):  http://michael-hussmann.de
> WWW (professional):  http://digicam-experts.de
>
>
>
>
>