atd dissapointment

[kelber at mindspring.com]

There's no law says you don't have a right to hate the book, but I'd advise holding your nose and reading further.  It wasn't 'til p. 400 or so that I was utterly hooked.  It wasn't just that I'd gotten past parts of the book that I'd found disappointing, but that I had a new appreciation of the book's beginning by then.  I haven't read any reviews yet, but I've gotten the impression that a lot of reviewers quit too early -- lectus interruptus, or something?

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: bob mccart <lebishar at gmail.com>
>Sent: Nov 30, 2006 10:23 PM
>To: p-list <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: atd dissapointment
>
>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.