Andrés Ibáñez: el heredero español de Pynchon?

[François Monti]

I haven't read Villa Vortex. I have been told by friends whose judgement 
I trust that it was unreadable: pretentious, poorly written, many erros 
in his use of science, poor sense of dialogue, bad intrigue... Dantec is 
one of those writers who can sometimes write a couple of really 
brilliant paragraphs but then goes missing for 200 pages. I was told his 
last novel is better, but have no clue about what it exactly means 
quality wise. Of Dantec, I have read the first two volumes of his 
"personal diary", which I found very interesting at times. The 
disturbing point is that Dantec-the anarchist made way for dantec the 
neo-con, Bush supporter, Islam-hater, revengeful catholic, civilisation 
war-monger.

As for french literature, I don't think there is anything quite like a 
long, erudite novel, certainly not in the last 50 years. French 
literature is slowly dying, and with the possible exceptions of a couple 
of writers, it doesn't seem like someone is there to bring some fresh 
air into it. It is by no means surprising that the mediocre Houellebecq 
is often considered as the best french contemporary writer. In the 
"difficult" field, there is no one, and even in the "classical" field, 
nothing is happening. Poor France, sic transit gloria mundi.

Note that some possible greats might have been published but are being 
overlooked by everyone including me. I do have to confess I do not give 
much of my time investigating french contemporary lit anymore: too many 
bad surprises.

François


Ya Sam wrote:

> Thanks for that summary. Maybe you could also comment on Maurice 
> Dantec's 'Villa Vortex'? Some reviewers have pointed out Pynchon's 
> influence on this book which at least  in terms of size corresponds to 
> the archetypal big novel of ideas. Generally speaking, are there any 
> attempts in French literature to create a large complex erudite novel, 
> the Great French Novel, so to speak? It seems to me that at the 
> present moment minimalist approach prevails in contemporary French 
> literature, although I am not much of an expert in this field.
>
> Y.
>
>
>
>> From: François Monti <francois at neovoid.org>
>> To: "pynchon-l at waste.org" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>> Subject: Re: Andrés Ibáñez: el heredero español de Pynchon?
>> Date: Mon, 03 Oct 2005 12:28:13 +0200
>>
>> I am currently reading "El mundo en la era de Varick", in French 
>> translation. A good 200 pages in the book (there are 700 of them), 
>> I'm thinking about giving up -or not. He seems to have a good style, 
>> but I can't connect wiht what he writes. So far, it's very mystic and 
>> I'm not into that kind of things.  The story seems to be about a 
>> group of spanish people living in New York at the end of "Varick's 
>> era". Varick is a sort of creature in orbit around Earth that started 
>> communicating with humans in 1970. Ibañez hints very early that the 
>> events depicted in the book take place at the end of Varick's "life". 
>> So far, all the characters seem to have had some sort of spiritual 
>> experience. "V." is mentioned. So far, the book could go in any 
>> directions: boring, interesting, or even fascinating.
>>
>> F
>>
>> Ya Sam wrote:
>>
>>> Although the heated discussion about the possible heirs of Pynchon 
>>> has died down, I'd like to call on those who read in Spanish. A 
>>> modern Spanish writer Andrés Ibáñez has been compared to Pynchon. No 
>>> work of his, to my knowledge, has been translated into English. Has 
>>> anybody read him, is he any good?
>>>
>>> Y.
>>>
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>>
>>
>> -- 
>> François Monti
>> musique[machine], the multi-genre music magazine :
>> http://www.musiquemachine.com
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>> francois.monti at gmail.com
>>
>
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-- 
François Monti
musique[machine], the multi-genre music magazine :
http://www.musiquemachine.com
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