Mason & Dixon II
Ya Sam
takoitov at hotmail.com
Sat Aug 5 10:49:27 CDT 2006
Walter Kirn cited in the same blog:
"Think about what's happened to the novel since the fat, fecund days of
Gravity's Rainbow. It's grown thin and literal and modest, so much so that
the typical first novel isn't called a first novel anymore; it's called a
memoir, just one step from journalism, and it's immunized from conventional
criticism by its traumatized sincerity."
My sarcastic remark: I've been enjoying thin, literal and modest novels ever
since, 'Infinite Jest', 'Goldbug Variations', 'Women and Men', 'House of
Leaves', 'Europe Central' etc.
>From: Dave Monroe <monropolitan at yahoo.com>
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Mason & Dixon II
>Date: Sat, 5 Aug 2006 08:18:48 -0700 (PDT)
>
>Have you read Mason & Dixon?
>
>I haven't.
>
>Well, not quite. I've read part of it, about 1/5 of
>it, and then I stopped. I just couldn't hack it
>Although I somehow found it in myself to get through
>all of V., The Crying of Lot 49, Gravity's Rainbow,
>and Vineland (which I happen to like), I finally drew
>the line (no pun intended) at Mason & Dixon.
>
>Maybe Mason & Dixon is better than I thought, maybe I
>just wanted something small and straightforward ....
>
>Or maybe after 4 Pynchon novels, I'd had about
>enough....
>
>[...]
>
>Which brings me back to Pynchon's new novel, Against
>the Day. I'd be a liar to say that I haven't wondered
>what Pynchon's been thinking all these years, these
>strange, screwed up years that probably compare none
>too favorably to the things he saw in the '60s and
>'70s. And part of me thinks that Pynchon must have the
>most amazing thoughts on Bush and the Internet and
>Prozac and Christian fundamentalists and terrorism and
>Osama bin Laden and all that.
>
>But another part of me thinks that whatever is in this
>new novel, that stuff isn't it. It's just going to be
>more Pynchon--more schmeils and entropy and UFOs and
>thermodynamics. The memory of Mason & Dixon still
>haunts me....
>
>[...]
>
>... Once upon a time, George Washington passing out
>hash was pretty funny shit, but now ... yeah, I've
>heard that joke. Stuff like that was part of the
>reason I put Mason & Dixon down and never picked it
>back up. If this is the Pynchon of Against the Day,
>then I'd have seen him go out on top years ago. I hope
>this isn't what we've got in store, but I'm not sure
>it isn't....
>
>http://esposito.typepad.com/con_read/2006/08/friday_column_m.html
>
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