Vineland: 'a lucent string of drool' (was Brown: A Pynchon for the nineties)

[John Carvill]

>Maybe he's just saying that people were disappointed that TRP was dealing >w. such relatively mundane matters, rather than "larger" themes such as >were dealt with in GR, which I think we can all pretty much (uh oh...) >agree (yeah, right...) is a lot deeper/better/more substantial...(I'm gonna >duck now, here come the retorts...)

Oh yeah, GR deeper/better/more substantial? I'd say yes/yes/yes.

But I've always had a soft spot for Vineland, don't think it deserves all the criticism it got/gets.

> Maybe he's just saying that people were disappointed that TRP was dealing >w. such relatively mundane matters

Ach, I know he was, I was being slightly facetious, I mean how would these poor TV addicts even know there was this super stupid book with lots of TV watching in it? Unless they advertised it on TV.....


Anyway GR is surely Pynchon's greatest work, way above anything else, though M&D is no hack work either. But I'm not sure I could trawl through 'V' again, whereas I always find something new in Vineland, and if Pynchon did deal with more mundane matters, the humour is still there just the same. I particularly enjoyed this little aside about Professor Wawazume:

"...(an enlarged paparazzo shot, the Professor looking even more goofy than usual, lurching after a noted beauty in gold lamé, flip hairdo, and two-centimeter eyelashes outside a bar in Shinjuku, a lucent string of drool begun to descend from one corner of his mouth),..."


Cheers

JC











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