Newsday review of AtD

[Carvill John]

<<But I think the very foundation of
fiction is the creation of worlds and characters, and a reader wants
to "relate" to these creations, have an emotional connection. >>

Well, but I think this sort of thing only represents one strain or aspect of 
fiction. That a reader is able to relate to or empathise with characters is 
a crtierion which could easily be fulfilled by some very non-literary 
fiction. Not that that's a bad thing, I just don't think it applies to 
Pynchon.

<<
Thus at
least some aspect of the character has to feel "real" to the reader.
Otherwise reading about some theoretical construct embodied in a
fictional world becomes a pretty dry experience. >>

In some ways, it seems that Pynchon is often valued for the very opposite of 
what you're saying here. There is a lot written about themes, theories, 
motifs, tropes, etc etc. and a lot less about how much fun Pynchon is to 
read, his poetic prose and imagery, narrative voice, sociopolitical outlook, 
sense of history, elegiac tone, and all the other stuff that's a lot more 
attractive to 'general readers' like myself.

Also, it's odd that Pynchon gets criticised endlessly for his (allegedly) 2 
dimensional cipher-like characters, but when he does do more fleshed-out, 
more emotionally involving characters, as in Vineland and M&D, these books 
seem to fall flat, popularity-wise.

Pretty much all of the ATD reviews I've seen so far are fairly superficial, 
bordering on fatuous. The guy who did the NY Sun piece in particular is not 
just an idiot but a strikingly disengenuous one. He bases his criticism of 
Pynchon around this whole idea pf P being a compiler of lists, yet he quotes 
a passage, which is a list of items on a laboratory table, and claims he's 
chosen it 'almost at random'. Aye, right. Pynchon doesn't deserve that kind 
of low, simple-minded attack; conversely, reviewers like that guy don't 
deserve Pynchon.

I predict that in my native UK, major papers like the Observer, Sunday 
Times, etc. will publish ATD reviews which average out as equivocal, leaning 
towards moderately negative, repeating the critical mantra that P has 
flashes of brilliance but doesn't add up to anything, and is a chore to read 
in big chunks. I predict (while I'm at it) that literary history will judge 
such critical myopia harshly.

Cheerily now
JC

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