ATDDTA (6) 166 - 170 a

[David Morris]

On 4/10/07, Tore Rye Andersen <torerye at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
[big snip:  Man you really know how to assemble some great quotes,
making very clear points!]
>
> The similarity between GR itself and these shifting patterns which are dependent upon the perspective of the observer is pretty obvious (the Rocket is even called a "text" in the final quote, just to drive the point home):  Reading GR, then, is a matter of projecting one's own world, drawing one's own connections between the disparate elements of the novel. But even though one can never construct the ultimate reading, so to speak, of GR - the reading which finally tells the "truth" about the novel - I'd still argue that some connections and linkages are monstrably more sound than others, more loyal to the text, as it were.
>
[and another snip]
>
> The many ambiguities of GR can't be resolved into any ultimate truth, but I'd argue that there are many local "truths" in the novel; many local stable patterns that function as some sort of signposts as we navigate our way through the wilderness of the text.

Yes.  And I really hate the Lit-Critters who go off on irrelevant (at
least to me) tangents using Pynchon as a springboard for papers that
are unreadable except for those initiated into their arcane lingo.
There is much in GR, for instance which is stable.  And Pynchon even
preaches *directly* at us in some instances, leaving little doubt
about some sentiments.  But some *events,* not to mention
interpretations of signs are left up to doubt, most notably for me,
Slothrop's famous visit with Darlene & Mrs Quoad.  Did it really
happen?  And for an event described in such exquisite detail to be
left in doubt of having really occurred says a lot about Pynchon's
contract with the reader.  The same kind of doubts in a similar vein
follow Slothrop's equally famous map.  I don't think Pynchon intends
for these things to have a clear answer.

David Morris