Rocketmen and Wastelands

[kelber at mindspring.com]

But, damn, the kid got $50K in prize money for this essay and is travelling around Europe.  Maybe he knows more about fun than he lets on.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Daniel Julius <daniel.julius at gmail.com>
>Sent: Oct 27, 2006 2:09 PM
>To: Carvill John <johncarvill at hotmail.com>
>Cc: monte.davis at verizon.net, pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: Rocketmen and Wastelands
>
> Carvill wrote:
>
>
>He sticks to the pomo/theoretical side which is my least favourite aspect of
>> Pynchon.
>> Then again, he could hardly leave all that stuff out, especially in an
>> academic paper. Someone should write a thesis on fun in Pynchon. But he
>> also
>> doesn't mention the wonderful poetic prose, astonishing imagery and
>> inventiveness, etc.
>
>
>And I write:
>
>Academic papers are supposed to be about objective truth, right?  "Pynch
>meant this when he said this."  (I think professors stress this more now to
>preemptively convince parents who want their kids to learn a trade or a hard
>science that there is value in this seemingly frivolous activity).  This
>ostensible devotion to objectivity flies directly in the face of naming fun,
>which is like one of the most subjective categories there is.
>
>And also, yer right, dude is a senior in college, he has to fit into his
>teachers' mold before he can break it later.  You know, if graduate school
>doesn't just beat the theory into him more, which I bet it does.  He's got
>to publish, right?  He can't write or teach in a discursive language that
>his peers don't use.
>
>Point is, I'm starting to believe that if you want to talk about the fun in
>literature, you better drag yr ass into journalism, lest academia squeeze
>the life out of it for you.
>
>--
>Dan