Action, Jackson!

[Paul Mackin]

On Aug 12, 2006, at 2:03 AM, robinlandseadel at comcast.net wrote:

> I probably should give "V." another chance, although it always has  
> been my least favorite Pynchon Novel. I suppose the ugliness is  
> uglier and the funniness is less funny than in any other book by  
> TRP. There's that nose-job, and the whole skin-crawlingly creepy  
> simulacra stuff. Perhaps I wasn't really cynical enough for it  
> before, though the last 5 years have probably moved me closer in  
> "V"'s direction than anything in the years before.


I remember thinking it was very odd. Had never heard of Pynchon or  
that he'd won a prize for it. Remember thinking, what can they get  
away with these days. Then I realized it was literary and not  pop.  
When his succeeding books came out I delved into them with different  
spectacles. PoMo ones as the new dispensation came to be known.
>
> Something I posted a few days before throws a arclight on what I  
> dislike in "V":
>
> "I was operating on the motto "Make it literary," a piece of bad  
> advice I made up all by myself and then took".
>
> But there are some interesting co-relations twixt "V" & "GR", and I  
> should give "V" another pass, considering there wil be considerable  
> overlap between "V" and "ATD".
>
>
>  -------------- Original message ----------------------
> From: Paul Mackin <paul.mackin at verizon.net>>
> Interesting
>
> Might a slight elaboration be allowed
>
> V. contains within it the seeds of future shapes to come
>
> Stencil's journey is parabolic in that he never gets any closer or   
> any farther away from what he is FOCUSing on. (definition of a  
> parabola)
>
> The North/South (uptown/downtown) line Benny meaninglessly follows  
> in his yoyoing  is destined to metamorphize into the East/West   
> line that is said also to mean ultimately nothing.
>
> Stencil's journey is circular in that he ends up right where he  
> started--"I haven't learned a goddamned thing." he sez