Rocketmen and Wastelands

[Paul Mackin]

On Oct 27, 2006, at 2:09 PM, Daniel Julius wrote:

> 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
>
>
Oh I imagine the young man had a whale of a lot of fun laughing all  
the way to the bank with that check for $55,000.

Has anyone in history ever made that much money writing about Pynchon?