NP Vollmann's / external referents (hyperlinks)

[mikebailey at speakeasy.net]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Mackin [mailto:paul.mackin at verizon.net]
> Subject: Re: NP Vollmann's  / Heinrich Boell / OBAFGKMRNS
> 
> >>
> >
> > Yes, the Kathe Kollwitz chapter was great!  I felt inferior reading  
> > the Shostakovich bits because I didn't know the pieces he was  
> > talking about.  Perhaps if I listen to them I can finish the novel...
> 
> Does one have to have seen a V2 launch to  "get" Gravity's Rainbow?  
> No, the authors words describe the event sufficiently.
> 
> Europe Central is fiction. At least  that's what it won the National  
> Book Award for.  In any event,  it's not something one should read  
> for reliable information.
> 

yes, but it would be fun to see if I agree with his descriptions (the movements reflecting various sexual encounters in particular) and the research for the other side of the metaphors might be fun too...

National Book Award?  didn't know...

I just read that article in Pynchon Notes, "Harmless Yank Hobby", that everybody was discussing a short while ago. After making that strange point about a hyperlink betw the Kenosha Kid and Major Major - something that certainly never crossed my mind when reading either book - it really delves into Phillip Dick as a spreader of interesting ideas, so I'm left with a bifurcated impression: a) I don't know Dick (Horselover Fat!)that well
 and b) Besides "hyperlinks" to great classics like Eliot, it's fruitful to look for responses in Pynchon to writers currently writing.