Vonnegut

[Sean Mannion]

I'm tempted by Cat's Cradle after having read a dozen of the shorts in 
Welcome To the Monkey House.

Otherwise, I'm currently two thirds of the way through Amis's London Fields 
(some of the most remarkable musings on media-constructed reality, entropy 
and heat-death I've read since Pynchon, btw), which is seriously making me 
want to go back and do a re-read of Money, though this might seriously 
impede getting back into reading GR.

Other than that, I'm intending to get stuck into Iain Crichton Smith's The 
Red Door collection, the last of the USA trilogy, and the ever unfinished 
but insane readable 'Shandy.

>From: "davemarc" <davemarc at panix.com>
>To: "Pynchlist" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: Vonnegut
>Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 12:30:37 -0400
>
>If you're embarking on a Vonnegut binge, consider reading them in order, at
>least up to Slaughterhouse 5. It's not essential, but it could enhance your
>experience.
>
>Pynchon-wise, I think people used to link Vonnegut and Pynchon
>intellectually much more in the Sixties and the Seventies than thereafter.
>As I think I mentioned a long time ago, there was that idea of
>"experimental" fiction as well as anti-war/anti-establishment writing....
>
>d.
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: <kelber at mindspring.com>
>To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Sent: Monday, May 29, 2006 7:35 PM
>Subject: Re: Europe Central
>
>
> > Thanks, Bekah.  Your description actually makes me want to tackle the
>book.  I've mostly just heard diatribes against it.  In the mean time, I'm
>considering embarking on a Vonnegut binge.  I'd read Cat's Cradle years 
>ago,
>but never went further.  I'm starting with Slaughterhouse 5.  Anyone have
>any opinions on Vonnegut's works?
> >
> > Laura
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > >From: bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
> > >Sent: May 29, 2006 6:42 PM
> > >To: mikebailey at speakeasy.net, pynchon-l at waste.org
> > >Subject: Europe Central
> > >
> > >At 3:53 AM +0000 5/29/06, mikebailey at speakeasy.net wrote:
> > >>Would you be willing to post your impressions of Europe Central?
> > >
> > >
> > >I don't do this type of thing well but here goes -
> > >
> > >Europe Central is long (752 pages of text plus another 50 pages of
> > >notes and source material) but well,  well worth the read and I think
> > >that many on this list would appreciate it.  Vollman writes his own
> > >kind of incredibly dense and powerful  prose.  It can be
> > >overwhelmingly intense at times and then mellow out, almost lyrically
> > >turning,  somehow,  into a fugue.  It can be truly exhausting to read
> > >a book about a war written with the same intensity as a  symphony
> > >with the same theme.    Somehow that was my reaction and it seems
> > >very appropriate because one of the numerous main characters is a
> > >Russian composer named  Dimitri Shostakovich and Vollmann describes
> > >Shostakovich's music in detail (and never,  ever,  boringly).   Also,
> > >there are many interwoven allusions to Wagner's The Ring .
> > >(Mythologizing WWII?)
> > >
> > >To me,  the book was redolent of DeLillo's scope (Underworld),
> > >McCarthy's intensity (Blood Meridian),  Bulgakov's magic  (Master and
> > >Margarita) and TPR's  research and subject-matter (M&D, and GR)..  In
> > >fact,  there are direct allusions to GR.    (How's that for a single
> > >book?)    Yet Vollmann maintains his own style throughout.
> > >
> > >Structurally,  the book is different and possibly "meaningful"?.  The
> > >tome (truly!)   is comprised of  36 chapters ranging between 5 and
> > >100 + pages each.   In the Table of Contents Vollmann graphically
> > >pairs the chapters  under the heading "Pincer Movements"  because the
> > >two conjoining  chapters are related. somehow although one is about
> > >a USSR incident or person and the other is about something in
> > >Germany.    Combined for a whole work,  the chapters don't all really
> > >mesh together like a conventional novel although they are all
> > >definitely linked in numerous ways.
> > >The intro chapter is about the technology and hardware impacting both
> > >Germany and the USSR.
> > >
> > >In the first chapter of main narrative,  Vollmann uses the term
> > >"parable" more than once  and I suppose that's a good term for what
> > >he's working toward.   Many of the  chapters (most ?  all?)   pose a
> > >moral dilemma and decision (I don't know about the lesson part of a
> > >parable.  Existential lessons?   ??  Thematically,  I  got the
> > >impression of larger-than-life mythologies and  memory vs forgetting,
> > >love,   loyalty,   being an artist through the purges of  Stalin's
> > >regime,  being a commander after Hitler lost Stalingrad,   the
> > >historical and individual consequences of moral acts,  and so on.
> > >
> > >The remaining chapters  occur in varied places in Russia and  Germany
> > >from the days of Lenin through the  aftermath of WWII,  the Cold War
> > >and further.   The focus is WWII itself, it's foreshadowing and it's
> > >aftermath.  Some of the most interesting chapters took place at the
> > >actual war fronts,  in Hitler's residences,   in Moscow  for
> > >Shostakavich's dealings with Stalin,  and in Germany for the
> > >retribution of the  Red Guillotine (Hilde Benjamin).   Every chapter
> > >has its own narrator, mostly first person and frequently omniscient.
> > >Shostakovich has more than one chapter,  I think three?
> > >
> > >The major characters and events are historical and the book is
> > >incredibly well researched although Vollmann says in his notes that
> > >he has taken some poetic license with the central triangular love
> > >affair.     Other characters include Krupskaya (Lenin's wife),  Van
> > >Paulus (a very loyal German general),  Adolph Hitler,  Elena
> > >Konstantinovskaya  (a translator),  Roman Karmen (Russian
> > >film-maker),  Kåthe Kollwitz (German artist),   Kurt Gerstein (a
> > >not-so-loyal German general)  General A.A. Vlasov (a Russian spy/
> > >traitor?)  and  Van Cliburn (an American pianist).
> > >
> > >
> > >That's as good as I can do for this book.  It's deserves more.
> > >
> > >Bekah
> > >hoping someone will have read it or be inspired to read it
> > >
> >
> >
> >
>