Where's Pynchon on the Modern Library List?

[grladams at teleport.com]

More on English majors not being aware of Pynchon; I was an English major
who was introduced to Pynchon by Chemistry Major classmates. They had to
read literature too, and it was a choice on their syllabus. My friend
picked GR, and I was intrigued. There was more to come, in the form of a
chemistry lab on banana fragrance, and that it spilled, and there was a
banana fragrance problem at the dorm for some time to come.. or something
like that, or maybe it was the procuring of ether. Anyway the enthusiasm
they felt for GR was infectious, and so I picked it up, and put it down,
and picked it up again, off and on for the next several years, until I
completed it with the list in oh 97 or 98 or so..
jill

Original Message:
-----------------
From: Peter F. Zogas pfzogas at gmail.com
Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2006 16:53:01 -0500
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: RE: Where's Pynchon on the Modern Library List?


"Because Pynchon wasn't covered in a class
doesn't mean he's not important" --Joshua Lind

That's pretty much the point.

There are plenty of important authors that I've never encountered in classes
during my undergraduate career (a personal short list: H. James, Nabokov,
Philip Roth, DeLillo).  The difference is that Pynchon isn't even mentioned
in courses, save perhaps a passing reference in a course on literary
criticism--why, I don't know.  I know of one professor who enjoys Pynchon a
great deal but has no desire to teach him in a course.  Many of my peers
(English majors) are unaware of Pynchon, which doesn't surprise me.  English
programs at the undergraduate level (and here I'll generalize based on my
own limited experience) teach students how to read and give them a
conception of the movement and evolution of literature from Homer and the
Bible through to the present day.  They'll necessarily spend more time on
the few centuries preceding the 20th.  Working from the understanding that
all literature is influenced by what preceded, such a teaching approach
makes a great deal of sense.  It also explains why Pynchon and other
postmodern novelists can fall through the cracks with such ease (especially
at smaller schools).  Students who come through such a program are left to
discover such authors on their own, but they're well equipped to read them.


-Peter


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