select one section of GR

[Tore Rye Andersen]

Plenty of eminent p-listers have suggested the Christmas section, and while 
that passage is certainly one of the most beatiful in GR, I'm not really 
sure it's suited to read out loud before a bunch of students, unless those 
students are a handpicked group of brainy supernerds with extraordinary 
attention spans. If it's an average bunch of students, I'd certainly pick 
something lighter, something with a bit of action and a bit of zaniness. In 
GR, the beautiful prose criterion should take care of itself, no matter 
which passage you choose....
But I'd go for something like the first chapter of part two (after a 
wonderful description of winter at the Riviera, we get Slothrop in his 
Hawaiian shirt, lovely girls, and a GIANT OCTOPUS!), or Slothrop's escape 
from Major Marvy in Mittelwerke, up to that dilapidated castle (pp. 306-14); 
or Slothrop's second escape from Major Marvy, with Schnorp and his balloon 
(pp. 332-36). For reading out loud, those mindless pleasures will probably 
be a much greater success than The War's Evensong, and I still think they 
express some of those things that make Pynchon unique.

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