Keesey: Rereading Pynchon

[Paul Mackin]

On Dec 9, 2005, at 6:09 PM, jbor at bigpond.com wrote:

> 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
>

"Fungal" is a little harsh.