Contemporary Fiction

[John Carvill]

> it doesn't mean that I'm disqualified for reading Pynchon. 
> Do you read nothing but Pynchon?

No no, I was referring to your and Doug's assertion that you're better
off discovering books/writers for yourself, rather than listening to
what anyone on some internet list might say. I was just joking though.

> First of all there will not be another Pynchon. As there is no another
> Joyce. But there certainly will be another great writer of their
scope.

Well, I didn't say 'another Pynchon', I know there's no celestial
assembly line churning out Pynchons. I meant another writer who'll be
the equal of Pynchon.

> But there certainly will be another great writer of their scope.

Personally, I doubt it. We'll have to agree to disagree on that. I hope
I'm wrong of course. I know what you mean, there is a tendency to think
everything is getting worse, every generation thinks the next one is
dumber and so on. This phenomenon exists, I'm aware of it. But, on the
other hand, things *are* getting worse, our culture *is* getting dumber,
etc.

And thanks to Bush and his ilk, will there be enough time left for the
world to throw up a new Pynchon?

Re. Pelevin by the way, I loved both 'Babylon' (aka Generation P), and
'The Clay Machine Gun'.

Cheers
JC





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