Can Pynchon write (yet)?

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

I've read a lot of Welles Bio's---be sure to read David Thompson's "Rosebud: the story of Orson Welles",--- most biographer's promote the myth that the guy took a swan dive off from his peak of "Citizen Kane", and landed in wine commercials and the Dean Martin TV show (note in passing: "Dino; Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams" by Nick Tosches is essential reading). Others note that the man practically invented independent cinema, and within that context, "Touch of Evil" is King of the Hill; the archetype of the genre.

http://www.amazon.com/Rosebud-Story-Orson-Welles-Vintage/dp/0679772839
 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Paul Nightingale" <isread at btopenworld.com>
> On Welles. It has been said that he directed some (his own) scenes in The
> Third Man, and that film's conclusion certainly prefigures the conclusion to
> Touch of Evil. And there is enough in The Magnificent Ambersons to indicate
> what might have been, had the full version been released (the excision of
> doesn't-move-the-plot stuff brings to mind similar butcher-jobs on Rudolph's
> Made In Heaven and Cimino's Heaven's Gate). But the complete (or as complete
> as it's gonna be) version of ToE is, my two bits, superior. I don't know
> that Laura's in the minority here--the best ever films lists usually cite
> CK; the consensus among most of his biographers--I've read a few but not
> all--is that Welles peaked at the outset, then went downhill (wasted talent,
> etc). As a ToE fan, I suspect I'm in the minority.
> 
> The importance of editing is more obvious (or is it?) in cinema, certainly
> now we're getting used to directors' cuts and dvd extras packs including
> outtakes. It would be interesting to see different versions of something P
> wrote, with evidence of (any) editorial input. If indeed P has been writing
> AtD over decades--or even if he started it the day after M&D was published
> in 1997--I would like to see how it developed. And yes, that might well be
> another minority view.
> 
> On Richard Hannay in The 39 Steps. Laura says Hannay comes across as flat
> because his actions aren't credible; here, the definition of the rounded
> character, then, would emphasise psychological realism/verisimilitude. One
> thing we haven't (I think) mentioned when discussing cartoonishness is the
> freedom that animated films typically have from realist narratives (and in P
> it's often the action, rather than any character as such in isolation, that
> might be termed cartoonish). Perhaps this is because cartoons/animated films
> aren't seen as an adult form, and adult narratives need realism (a view,
> perhaps, that panders to the adult reader's sense of their own importance).
> Given the P-connection one can cite The Simpsons, but surrealism is often a
> feature in animated narratives. Hitchcock's British films were certainly
> influenced by contemporary European theory, eg expressionism, montage
> theory; and (in The 39 Steps) the handcuffs scene in the hotel room, for
> one, might be considered a tad surrealistic (as well as music hall
> slapstick) even borrowing elements of cubism.
> 
> 
>