Who is the heir to Thomas Pynchon?

[Paul Mackin]

On Sep 18, 2005, at 4:16 AM, Ya Sam wrote:

> Was there any heir to Cervantes, Rabelais, Melville, Joyce? The  
> uniqueness of Pynchonian is that one has to try really hard to be  
> an epicene of that writer, let alone 'heir'. There will be another  
> great writer but he or she will be doing something different from  
> what TRP's doing. He or she does not necesseraly have to be  
> American or English-speaking for that matter. Who knows, maybe some  
> Chinese genius has already completed his magnum opus that forever  
> will change the landscape of contemporary literature.
>
> Y.

Well put.

Zadie Smith has Pynchonian sensibilities when it comes to choosing   
drinking partners. On p. 161 of On Beauty she (the authorial voice)  
laments of a not very prepossessing English department dean, "if one  
could imagine, even abstractly, the possibility of having a beer with  
him."

I'm only halfway through the book, so will reserve judgement.  
Enjoying it a lot but am a natural sucker for academic novels.    
Plenty of slaps at pomo as well as at ultra-conservative enthusiasms.  
Incidentally there is a Roxbury street negro (how he describes  
himself)--quite idealized. A  mostly American scene through British  
ears.  A lot of emphasis on the art history department. Rembrandt.







>



>
>> From: tony antoniadis <tony.antoniadis at gmail.com>
>> Reply-To: tony.antoniadis at gmail.com
>> To: pynchon-l-digest at waste.org
>> Subject: Who is the heir to Thomas Pynchon?
>> Date: Sat, 17 Sep 2005 17:23:35 +0100
>>
>> Quick question: what do people on this list think of George Saunders'
>> frequent title as "the heir to Pynchon" ? Doesn't sound right.  
>> Perhpas only
>> insofar as they're both satirists? I believe that Pynchon, in a  
>> very generic
>> way, is a satirist, although he's doing about 7 other things with  
>> his text
>> while Saunders, I don't know... I've always thought of saunders as  
>> perhaps a
>> juiced up Barry Hannah, at least that was evident with  
>> Civilwarland... I'm
>> just not satisfied with these blurbs that peg Saunders as the heir  
>> to TRP,
>> or Vonnegut, perhaps, who in my opinion was always dealing with  
>> Big Ideas
>> but used a very, how do I say it, boring language to convey them...
>>  Is Saunders the heir to Pynchon? If not, then who is?
>>  Tony
>>
>
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