Pynchon and baseball

[Matthew Garcia]

>
> I think a lot of the American obsession with baseball can best be
> summarized by that *Simpsons *quote, when Homer sez, after watching a game
> sober, surronded by a bunch of drunkards, "I can't believe how boring this
> game really is."
>
> On 4/18/07, Ya Sam <takoitov at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > I took to watching baseball matches on North American Sports channel
> > (well,
> > actually some snippets, 'cause 3 hours of baseball are too much for me)
> > and
> > while gradually developing a sort of understanding of this game I
> > realised
> > that I would always remain pretty indifferent to it. And I am completely
> > aware of the fact that most of the Americans will remain indifferent to
> > soccer. Now, although Pynchon undoubtedly belongs to world literature,
> > he is
> > still very American writer. He does mention the game on several
> > occasions
> > but these meagre references only serve to highlight the virtual absence
> > of
> > baseball in his ouevre. Why do you think it is so?
> >
> > GR
> >
> > 'In fact, no two people have been so ill-equipped to approach a holy
> > Center
> > since the days of Tchitcherine and Dzaqyp Qulan, hauling ass over the
> > steppe, into the North, to find their Kirghiz Light. That's about ten
> > years'
> > gap. Giving this pastime about the same vulnerability to record-breakers
> > as
> > baseball, a sport also well-spidered with white suggestions of the
> > sinister.'
> >
> >
> > Vineland
> >
> > 'They sat together on the floor in front of the Tube, with a chair-high
> > bag
> > of Chee-tos and a sixpack of grapefruit soda from the health-food store,
> > watching baseball highlights, commercials, and weather — no rain again —
> >
> > till it was time for the kissoff story.'
> >
> > 'Out in the bar a baseball game was on, Central League playoffs, and a
> > few
> > guests had lingered till the traditional 8:56, when the transmission
> > from
> > the ballpark was abruptly cut off, in the middle of a double play, in
> > fact.'
> >
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> >
> >
>
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