Devil's advocate in Slate comments

[Ya Sam]

You can add your furious comments to the original post

http://www.slate.com/?id=3936&m=17838300




>From: jd <wescac at gmail.com>
>To: "Matthew Ryan" <matthew.ryan at gmail.com>
>CC: "Ya Sam" <takoitov at hotmail.com>, pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: Devil's advocate in Slate comments
>Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2006 17:07:55 -0400
>
>See, I've always felt that Cryptonomicon was a watered down attempt by
>Stephenson as a wanna-be Pynchon to write a GR.  I think Matthew's
>comment there about sums it up for me as well.
>
>On 7/20/06, Matthew Ryan <matthew.ryan at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>If you want to read the book that Gravity's Rainbow aspired to be, read 
>>Neal
>>Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, for it has many of the same concerns, it 
>>covers
>>the same period and theatre of operations, and it is a much better crafted
>>book.
>>
>>
>>You've got to be fucking kidding me.
>>
>>
>>
>>On 7/20/06, Ya Sam <takoitov at hotmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> > Subject: Pynchon is a bad writer
>> > From: thetwomacduff
>> > Date: Jul 20 2006 3:52PM
>> >
>> > Many of the replies to danielmartinx have missed his main point, which 
>>was
>> > not that the university crowd have abandoned him, but that he is,
>> > technically, not a very good writer; that his prose is clotted and 
>>poorly
>> > constructed, and that the praise he has received has been for the 
>>supposed
>> > "ideas" content, not for the style, which is often excused, but seldom
>> > praised.
>> >
>> > Of course, every now and then, he pulls off a beautiful passage, viz., 
>>the
>> > opening of Gravity's Rainbow, but he isn't able to consistently write
>> > readable prose, or even construct moderately well-crafted sentences.
>> >
>> > The stuff of Pynchon's Books is, mostly, science fiction, but his
>>technique
>> > is to swathe that stuff in a style that is self-consciously 
>>post-modern,
>> > and, as he has gone on and on, it is the style that has brought him his
>>fans
>> > – and yes, I would agree, he has many, and that many are members or
>> > hangers-on of the "university crowd." But he's an appallingly slipshod
>> > writer, and, in my opinion, not a very clear thinker.
>> >
>> > If you want to read the book that Gravity's Rainbow aspired to be, read
>>Neal
>> > Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, for it has many of the same concerns, it
>>covers
>> > the same period and theatre of operations, and it is a much better 
>>crafted
>> > book.
>> >
>> >
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