ATD: ad: Pynchon excerpt from new novel

[Ghetta Life]

One can have difficulty reading Joyce, but the superior quality and scope of 
his writing is a benchmark against which all subsequent authors must face, 
willingly or not.  I believe GR was Pynchon's answer to Ulysses's scope and 
depth.  Whether one enjoys Ulysses as much doesn't make it a lesser work.  
Just ask a Joycean.  He'll go on forever, and with lots of real 
justification.

As for FW, it can't really be called a novel.  It was an experimantal work 
closer to poetry than fiction.  And as far as Leherer's comment, I doubt he 
would apply it to FW.

The "the right book for the right person" is a good attitude for librarians 
who want to encourage reading in general (except maybe for those that 
acquire the books for the library).  But for students of literature it would 
be silly advice.

Ghetta

>From: robinlandseadel at comcast.net
>
>Worse yet, forced to read Joyce. Not that one (such as I) cannot enjoy a 
>great deal of Finnegan's Wake without really understanding it---and lord 
>knows, I've tried---but in, let us say, Gravity's Rainbow (the most 
>daunting and Joyce-laden of TRPs tomes), Pynchon's index of intelligibility 
>is much higher than Joyce's in "Wake". As Tom Leherer once put it "If one 
>cannot communicate, the very least one can do is to shut up." I've given 
>two full passes to "FW" and one to "Ulysses" and find Pynchon's m.o. a lot 
>easier to swallow. No doubt Joyce's work has a greater opportunity to make 
>it's presence known in "Against The Day" than in any other volume by TRP, 
>considering the historical locus and our author's obsessions.
>
>  -------------- Original message ----------------------
>From: "Ghetta Life" <ghetta_outta at hotmail.com>
> > This sentiment is nice and egalitarian, but it's hard to believe when 
>one is forced to confront the genius of Joyce...
> >
> > Ghetta
> >
> > >From: rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com>
> > >
> > >but i'm really not caring all that much about it, like this tit for tat 
>about the greatest writer in english. in library school we were taught the 
>right book for the right person. pynchon happens to be it for many of us 
>but it's not like it means anything

_________________________________________________________________
Don't just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! 
http://search.msn.com/