Action, Jackson!

[Spencer T. Campbell]

Mondagen's Story is breathtaking.  I dig the nose job.  Long stretches
of that book are pure genius.  But I also feel that long stretches are
fairly sloppy and a weird mix of under-/overwritten when compared to
his later work.  A lot of it reads like skimmed Gaddis, ca. The
Recognitions.

I've only read it once, though, and maybe I'll be differently moved on
a second go.  As of now it's my least favorite of all Pynchon's output
('cept Slow Learner).  I'd still rank V above a lot of post-WWII
American literature, but I'll re-read Vineland before V.


On 8/15/06, Ya Sam <takoitov at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Mondaugen's Story  is a masterpiece in its own right. I still can't believe
> that a guy in his 20s pulled it off.
>
>
> >From: Steven <mcquaryq at comcast.net>
> >To: jd <wescac at gmail.com>
> >CC: "Dave Monroe" <monropolitan at yahoo.com>,        "Steve Maas"
> ><tyronemullet at hotmail.com>, pynchon-l at waste.org
> >Subject: Re: Action, Jackson!
> >Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2006 19:15:31 -0400
> >
> >       Me three.  V is the most clearly bi-furcated of his works, the two
> >strands, seemingly separate, braiding together gradually into the one
> >thing.  I miss the more sonorous tone he struck in that first book's
> >Stencillian chps.  It's still present in GR, but the clownish,  satirical
> >side of him has dominated his work since.
> >
> >       Steve
> >
> >
> >On Aug 14, 2006, at 5:02 PM, jd wrote:
> >
> >>I, too, am of the opinion that V is second only to GR in the Pynchon
> >>books, for what it's worth...
> >>
> >
>
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