Keesey: Rereading Pynchon

[jbor at bigpond.com]

A poorly-edited essay that addresses Martin Seymour-Smith's judgement 
(in his 1985 _New Guide to Modern World Literature_) that Pynchon is 
not a "great writer". Basically it's a fairly bizarre reading of the 
short story 'Entropy', inferring Callisto's "castration" and his and 
Aubade's ultimate suicide. Pdf available.

'"A Flaw Not Only In Him": Rereading Thomas Pynchon'	
by Douglas Keesey. _boundary 2_ Spring/Fall 1988, Vol. 15/16 Issue 3/1, 
pp. 215-237.

Abstract
The article focuses on an appraisal of the writings of Thomas Pynchon. 
Critics who have had trouble categorizing Pynchon's three novels, 
particularly the kaleidoscopically allusive, 760-page _Gravity's 
Rainbow_, have naturally turned to Pynchon's short fiction for help. 
'Entropy' has proven the favorite, anthologized and discussed more 
often than any other Pychon short story because, as one critic put it, 
"The significance of the story grows, in retrospect, as an aesthetic 
source and a preface for the novels that follow. In contrast to their 
uncertain ties, this work is almost proverbial in its clarity and 
simplicity." With its contrapuntal or fungal structure, "Entropy," has 
served numerous critics as the strong, clear source against which to 
understand all the complex words that came after.

best