Literature for the Age of Unease: Reading Pynchon Today

[mikebailey at speakeasy.net]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Mackin [mailto:paul.mackin at verizon.net]

> >> ....However, the subjects of Homer's epics are heroes, whereas  
> >> every one of >Pynchon's protagonists is about as close to a loser  
> >> as a literary character >can get without being named Leopold Bloom.
> >
> > Robert Anton Wilson summarizes Ulysses as a working out of the  
> > parable of the Good Samaritan (actually there are scads of  
> > references to this theme on the Web, but it was Wilson's  
> > description that turned the key for me), so I have never thought of  
> > him - with his rich inner life - as a loser.  That description was  
> > a surprising throwaway.
> 
> Yeah, after such a literary howler, who can give much large scale  
> trust to this critic.
> 
> 

or, maybe he's tying in a likening of Pynchon to Joyce with a re-evaluation of heroes vs losers (all those guys running off to battle, proud of their armor and how many people they could kill) in Joyce's and Pynchon's fiction (and of course others) ...would I rather sulk with Achilles in his tent or drink Epps's cocoa with Leopold Bloom; sail with wily Odysseus - not many of whose crew made it home with him - or yoyo with Benny Profane whose Crew lurches  through adventures without notable casualties?
...the latter, for sure