Enough Vollmann Bashing!: A Plea

[Jonathon Sturgeon]

Many of you have probably done much more cross-referencing/intertextual
gathering on Pynchon's religious beliefs than I have.  It just seems to me
that Pynchon has a (Gnostic) subversive streak when it comes to the subject
of Time (to say the least).  Also, there is the Rushdie (was it NYT?)
letter.  Prayer clearly isn't a singularly Christian practice (though it is
a disease of the will); my speculation on his religious beliefs is
admittedly based more on feeling.  Reading him just feels Gnostic to me.  I
guess the Melville parallels, the family history, the anarchism with early
Christian parallels...

As far as Vollmann is concerned, I find him to be a good Hegelian/Marxist.
Remarks on the cash nexus.

My actual point is more in line with contrasts of the religious and
political views of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.  They are just saying disparate
things about history, politics, and religion.  They are saying them in
radically different ways.

So, if you want to compare/contrast, I'm all for it.  There is plenty to
talk about.  Otherwise, this is my final plea (I promise) to stop the
useless and childish Vollmann bashing.  Would the idol of your New
Bardolatry want you (Vollmann-Bashers) to act this way?

On 4/25/07, Monte Davis <monte.davis at bms.com> wrote:
>
> robinlandseadel at comcast.net wrote:
>
> >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"... The man will do just about anything
> >to get a laugh
> >
> c. 1970 an earnest journalist asked R. Crumb  (I think w/r/t Incest
> Comix) a long, earnest question along the lines of  "Did you intend the
> story's shock value to provoke an examination of the tacit patriarchal
> value system and nuclear-family stereotypes, which distort...[etc etc
> etc]?"
>
> Crumb: "I think I was just being a punk."
>
>
>
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