atd dissapointment

[Humberto Torofuerte]

Couldn't hang with it, eh....wuss.

I kid, I kid...but seriously I think it was the Chums of Chance segment
(SPOILER!!!!) starting with the book's first few pages that almost killed it
for me.  I know it's supposed to be parody but I just found that shit
annoying.  I'm over that now.  Since then I've found many moments of pure,
sublime reading pleasure....and I don't think you're apt to find the same
level of insight into the consequences of greed, power, and technological
progress (or rather the intersection of the three) in many other authors'
works...and that theme is to me more or less constant in ATD...with this
one, as has been my experience with any Pynchon opus, ya gotta take the good
with the bad....kind of like a moody or mildly alcoholic lover who still
gets it done in the sack (and I don't mean that in a gay way...but by all
means take it that way if it suits one's particular circumstances).


On 11/30/06, bob mccart <lebishar at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I don't mean to start a flame war, but is anyone else incredibly
> disapointed with Against the Day. I've read only to 120 because the interest
> just isn't there. I've read everything else except Mason&Dixon, which from
> the little I have read of it I expect to be very much like ATD. ATD moves to
> quickly. Pynchon establishes no 'immediacy' of plot. Instead of setting, we
> have a chronology. Events move to fast and are undeveloped. Pynchon seems to
> try to ground the book in the 'now' with dialogue, which is often nothing
> more than a one liner maybe followed up by a response. Whether the slang is
> accurate or not, it's almost like Pynchon over the years has grown worse and
> worse at writing dialogue. Some of short stories attempt different voices
> for different people. I should say I love V, and Gravity's Rainbow is
> probably my favorite book. In Vineland I was willing to accept what I saw as
> this new style of his--mainly because it was so short and cohesive. But what
> the fuck was he thinking with against the Day? What I really want is
> validation for hating the book.
>
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