Remark on Pynchon abstruseness

[pynchonoid]

--- Paul Mackin <paul.mackin at verizon.net> wrote:
> >>
> >> And besides what has the easy availability of 
> huge
> >> quantities of
> >> indexed more-or-less reliable information have to
> do
> >> with good writing?
> >>
> >> Nobody reads Pynchon for Information, I hope.
> >>

pynchonoid:
> > Why leave out half the fun?
> >
> > Who besides academic specialists would know about
> the
> > Herero, to mention just one example and not to
> > mention ____, _____, ____, & etc.) if Pynchon
> hadn't
> > written about them.
> 

Macking:
> yeah but then you have to fact check the information
> in order to know  
> whether it's true of not.

You make that sound like a bad thing.  

;)


Macking:
> but yeah again I suppose Pynchon IS generally
> educational.


It is for me.  Your mileage may vary. I don't mind
learning something new as I entertain myself with
fiction, teasing out the cusp where "fact" becomes
"fiction" is an intriguing process, for me.  

BOTH/AND = a fundamental Pynchonian principle that
most of us forget here fairly often in our enthusiasm
for one or another aspect of his work. No need to
throw out the baby with the bathwater.



pynchonoid:
> >
> > It's his ability to single out the factoids -
> little
> > known, or the unique approach to something well
> known
> > - plus powerful prose and the rest of his art,
> that
> > makes Pynchon special for me.
>
 
Macking:
> Me too.
>

Common ground.




 
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