Enough Vollmann Bashing!: A Plea

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

I find that Pynchon is pointed to, here on the list, as derived from some
variety of unobtanium, stuff that is another chakra or two up from such 
mere mortals as DeLillo, Richard Powers, Ishmael Reed or Vollmann.
Bob Dylan's comment, [members of the press asking him if he was more 
of  a lyricist or a musician] "I tend to think of myself more as a song and
dance man" comes to mind, considering how much sheer effort our man 
puts into writing jokes, puns, funny names. In fact, that's a particular in 
which our man can stake a claim. The man will do just about anything 
to get a laugh

Considering how many references TRP makes to every concievable 
religious system [and how favorably he speaks of non-Christian spiritual
systems] I'm not so sure of that "Gnostic Christian" peg, he just knows too
danm much about magical/magickal history, ritual magic, the Occult and 
Nicholas Nookshaft for me to think of his belief system as being centered
in Christianity. I think he's probably a lot more like Joseph Campbell in his 
overview of religions, spritual systems, mythology and so forth.
 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Jonathon Sturgeon" <caterpillarheart at gmail.com>
> 1.  After reading every commercially available work by both Vollmann and
> Pynchon (excluding the unabridged _Rising Up and Rising Down_), I can say
> with some confidence that the two authors share at best a small set of
> thematic and stylistic similarities--similarities shared by many late
> 20th/early 21st Century American writers.  The differences between the two
> are legion.
> 
> --First of all, Vollmann writes copious amounts of journalism.  The impact
> of this journalism is crucial to understanding the structure/narrative of
> his novels.  Vollmann employs a sort of personified vanishing mediator in
> all of his novels.  This fact has apparently escaped every single one of his
> reviewers.
> 
> --Vollmann claims--we have every reason to believe him--not to have read
> Pynchon until after writing his first novel (_You Bright and Risen Angels_).
> 
> --Vollmann's lists of favorite books (found in the Vollmann Reader) include
> a large selection of works from the "Eastern" canon.  This is not to say
> that Pynchon doesn't share any of these influences.  I'm only suggesting
> that
> 
> --Vollmann seems to me to be a sort of Hegelian/Marxist, whereas Pynchon
> seems to me more of a (possibly Gnostic) Christian with Anarchist leanings.
> Extraordinarily disparate political impressions.
> 
> 2.  Admission of similarities
> 
> --They attended the same college (a generation apart).
> --Both are autodidacts, polyglots, polymaths (?)
> --Mason & Dixon seems to share some startling thematic similarities with
> Seven Dreams.  (This can be explained away, however.  Pynchon clearly began
> planning M&D decades earlier/Vollmann, given that M&D wasn't published until
> after many of Seven Dreams, could not possibly have been influenced by
> Pynchon in this regard.)
> 
> 3.  I personally think Vollmann shares more in common with someone like
> Terrence Malick than TRP.
> 
> 4.  I would just ask that any contrast/comparison of the two authors remain
> civil.  I personally don't find Vollmann-bashing stimulating, inviting, or
> even intellectually relevant.  On what theoretical grounds do you even
> compare the quality of the two authors?


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Subject: Enough Vollmann Bashing!: A Plea
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