Pynchon and baseball

[Will Layman]

I'm not saying that anybody "should" agree with me, but I just want  
to weigh in here:  I love baseball.  I watch it almost every night.   
Love it completely.  I see it as suspenseful, not dull -- it compares  
to basketball (which I also love) the way a Hitchcock movie compares  
to a slasher film -- more nuanced, if you know what you're watching.

Just standing up for the National Pastime here . . . .

-- Will Layman

On Apr 18, 2007, at 9:54 PM, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:

> It's not the same as omitting to mention Einstein in ATD.   
> Presuambly baseball just bores the shit out of him.  My husband  
> says various men at work will come up to him and say "how do you  
> like those Mets/Yankees/etc.?" and he'll tell them he's not into  
> baseball at which point most of them will shame-facedly admit that  
> they aren't either.
>
> Laura
>
> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Ya Sam <takoitov at hotmail.com>
>> Sent: Apr 18, 2007 8:35 PM
>> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>> Subject: Pynchon and baseball
>>
>> 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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