Contemporary Fiction

[Ya Sam]

Contemporary fiction and the degree of exposure to it one affords are a 
tricky thing. It is much more difficult to make a correct choice once you 
are inside the experience, without a vantage point of time to lean on. For 
example, to a contemporary reader the 18th century English literature may 
seem a wasteland with the oases of Fielding, Stern, Defoe, Swift, Richardson 
and other classics. It was not, of course. There were thousands of authors, 
most of whom sank into oblivion. Some of them were widely read and admired, 
but alas, they were not meant to last. At the present moment, we, as 
readers, are in even more disadvantaged position. We are bombarded with new 
names and new books, and, sincerely, one has to be immortal to read 
everything there is to read. Still, I wish I were one who despite his 
sceptical attitude to contemporary literature bought V. in the 1960s or 
Gravity's Rainbow in the 1970s by a young and experimental writer Thomas 
Pynchon and discovered a great name before it had been canonised by a Harold 
Bloom. I could not have been that person because I was not even born at the 
time. Optimist as I am, I will continue reading contemporary fiction, time 
and money permitting, because I want to be there at the time it begins. 
Sorry if it reads like a monologue from a Gus Van Sant movie, but I think 
you're getting my point, although I guess many will disagree with me here.


>From: Dave Monroe <monropolitan at yahoo.com>
>To: Pynchon-L <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: Contemporary Fiction
>Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 15:08:14 -0700 (PDT)
>
>I by and large gave on on contmeporary music ca. the
>turn of the decade/century/millenium/whatever, mostly
>because (a) I was spending what money I had to spend
>on such things (and even quite a bit of money I DIDN'T
>necessarily have) on vintage vinyl (up to and
>including the 90s) and (b) my trusty Melody Maker,
>which I relied on as my primary filter for what to
>look out for (esp. in terms of, what to order, uh,
>sight unheard, 'cos most everything I was interested
>in was coming out in the UK significantly eralier than
>it would here), went under.  I've only recently begun
>to reconnect, so ...
>
>But beyond Pynchon and SF, I've never been much of a
>contemporary (as in, hot off the presses) fiction
>reader.  And I read more nonfiction tahn fiction as it
>is.  Hipster kids hauling around things like Infinite
>Jest and House of Leaves, much less swooning over
>Eggers and Sedaris and Foer, has only served to
>discourage me from reading any of them them (and I
>STILL haven't done so, so ...).  The Corrections,
>Motherless Brooklyn, Middlesex, and so forth, some
>I've even given--successfully--as gifts, but without
>ever intending to read them myself ...
>
>I HAVE picked up a few odd things mentioned here along
>the way (and that Cloud Atlas sounded interesting as
>well), and Vollmann and Gaddis (have only even
>attepted the big novels) are always in the air, but I
>can't recall off hand what I've gotten to.  What's
>worth the time/effort?  At least before Nov. 21st ...
>
>But i' really feeling my impending mortality, like I
>really should be reading War and Peace, or the REST of
>Don Quixote, or the Bible, for that matter ...
>
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