Californian Sensibility

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

The points on the various paths in Vineland intersect mine so often, and ring so true to my personal experience, I gotta wonder if if the book was written for me and me alone. As far as I can tell, my mother has been living in Vineland for the last 20 years.
 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Paul Mackin <paul.mackin at verizon.net>
> 
> On Aug 23, 2006, at 9:16 AM, bekah wrote:
> 
> > I live in California and lived here in the 60s and early 70s.   I  
> > only lived in Oklahoma and Texas for a brief time in the very late  
> > 70s and my early childhood was spent in the mid-west.  I was 19 for  
> > 1967 in Haight Asbury and I was there - on Sacramento St. and  
> > elsewhere.   I've usually been here in the southern San Joaquin  
> > valley, just north of Bakersfield.
> >
> > I love Vineland; it was my intro to Pynchon.   I enjoyed Drop City  
> > by Boyle but it's certainly not his best,  Riven Rock and Tortilla  
> > Curtain both take place in California - maybe others?  (it's early)  
> > I enjoy Dideon, too,  fwiw although I've only read The White Album  
> > and Year of Magical Thinking but they were both quite good.  Like  
> > others,  I really ought to read Slouching ...
> >
> > Fwiw,  I think you can "get" Vineland,  Boyle and Dideon without  
> > living here.  Only Dideon is native and left long ago.  Try Umberto  
> > Eco's Travels in Hyper-reality for essays about California's love  
> > affair with and faith ins fakes.   It's really quite funny.
> >
> > Bekah
> 
> 
> I was born and bred  in California and like Didion have a California  
> sensibility. Also like Joan I have no feel for the Hippies.  
> Completely wrong generation. When I  lived in San Francisco in he  
> early 50s I don't think I ever crossed the intersection of  Haight   
> and Asbury. All the counter cultural activity was in a completely  
> different part of town.
> 
> I agree  with  Bekah that you don't have to  be a  Californian to get  
> Vineland. In fact if you're a native you're apt  to  find  the book  
> kind of Eastern feeling.