Bloom on Pynchon

[Paul Mackin]

On Aug 21, 2006, at 8:57 PM, Dave Monroe wrote:

> I recall Bloom's advice on reading The Crying of Lot
> 49 being to read it straight through, then read it
> again immediately thereafter ...


I remember something stranger. In speaking of "influence" and the  
possibility of canonization he said something to effect that  
paradoxically Lot 49 seemed to have been a forerunner of  Miss  
Lonelyhearts. A putdown of Pynchon I thought. Sometimes I  think  
Bloom's tendency to dwell on Lot 49 over GR and V. derives from the  
fact  it is short.

Sort of like French liking Jerry Lewis. Damning American culture with  
faint praise.

Or maybe not, dunno.






>
> --- Ya Sam <takoitov at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Quote from Book TV feature on Bloom. Correct me if I
>> misheard anything.
>>
>> 'V. and Gravity's Rainbow seem to me less as
>> achievements than the extraordinary earlier novel
>> which came between those two books, The Crying
>> of Lot 49, which is a superb shot out of hell as
>> it were, and a book I cannot reread too often...."
>
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