100 arabian nights and 1night

[Ya Sam]

The main difference that I perceive between Barth and Pynchon is that 
Barth's narrator is all the time in control of the narrative, you don't 
expect with him the strange and unexpected transformations that narrative 
undergoes in  Pynchon's novels, when suddenly, in the middle of a passage 
you're not aware any more who is speaking, why, and where. GR's narrator is 
one hell of a textual trickster.


>From: Steven <mcquaryq at comcast.net>
>To: Ya Sam <takoitov at hotmail.com>
>CC: david.casseres at gmail.com, lebishar at gmail.com, pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: 100 arabian nights and 1night
>Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 18:52:31 -0400
>
>	It was just an off-the-cuff remark but...  Barth more consciously  apes 
>historical forms -- frame tales from the 1001 Nights -- and is  more 
>rigorous in following a pre-set form -- LETTERS, Chimera, Last  Voyage.  
>Pynchon (excepting V) is more of an improvisationalist, his  'tendrils' 
>reaching places he mayn't even have foreseen before  putting them down in 
>words.  That strikes me as more romantic a bent.
>
>	I love Sot-Weed and Giles very much, the latter, with the author's  photo 
>of his bald head mimicking some campus archway behind, and his  bleak 
>bitter expression eating its way off the page made some sort of  (I 
>thought) indelible mark on me.  But it went away after a certain  number of 
>jolly sailor shots.
>
>
>On Sep 22, 2006, at 11:13 AM, Ya Sam wrote:
>
>>Could I ask you to explain a bit this dichotomy? (I am dead  serious, not 
>>trying to pick on you or something).
>

_________________________________________________________________
FREE pop-up blocking with the new MSN Toolbar - get it now! 
http://toolbar.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200415ave/direct/01/