Why don't women read Pynchon?

[Ya Sam]

In fact I feel emotionally engaged with some of the characters, and I am not 
altogether indifferent to their fates. I follow their progress with my 
breath bated. There are also a couple of characters I am really disgusted 
with and want them to be punished for what they did. So it's not only 
literary allusions and concepts for me.


>From: "John BAILEY" <JBAILEY at theage.com.au>
>To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: RE: Why don't women read Pynchon?
>Date: Fri, 1 Dec 2006 13:04:34 +1100
>
>Leaving aside gender assumptions, am I the only one who actually finds
>AtD a *more* emotive, affective book overall than most of P's earlier
>work? There have been many, many instances in only the first couple of
>hundred pages that seemed the work of someone who'd crossed some kind of
>boundary in writing those terrific final scenes of M&D. Lots of parents
>having to let go of children, husbands of wives and wives of husbands,
>friends falling out, there's vengeful rage, fear, self-destructive love
>and regret - really, I've never entirely bought the 'two-dimensional
>characters' charge. It's more as if his characters shift from two to
>three dimensions (or four or five?) and we require a corresponding
>perspectival shift to handle that.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On
>Behalf Of Ya Sam
>Sent: Friday, 1 December 2006 4:21 AM
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Why don't women read Pynchon?
>
>Sorry if posted before
>
>"Why don't women read Pynchon? The question's been posed and bandied
>about on the blogosphere recently in response to Thomas Pynchon's latest
>novel and the spate of reviews for Against the Day written largely by
>men. It came as a surprise, this question: as a devoted Pynchonite - and
>a woman - I'd never thought of Pynchon's work as gender-specific. But
>according to one blogger, Pynchon's writing presents obstacles women
>don't care to surmount. And the few searing female reviews of the book
>that have come out support the theory. So I started evaluating the ways
>Pynchon could turn women off.  ..."
>
>http://www.thephoenix.com/article_ektid28706.aspx
>
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