ATDTDA (3) Dynamitic mania, 80-86

[David Morris]

On 2/28/07, Paul Mackin <paul.mackin at verizon.net> wrote:
>
> I do rather disagree with the contention that AtD draws the  reader INto story. Relative to GR perhaps it does.  But making any real effort at drawing the reader IN, making him  care very much about what happens to  the characters,  isn't  IMO the way  Pynchon works.  He certainly doesn't "work" for me that  way. It's not that I  doubt his being  a brilliant writer, or that I didn't enjoy much that was in AtD, or that I would not find even more to enjoy upon another reading. There is always plenty  to be gotten out of a Pynchon novel.  It's not engagement with any of the characters, however.

I pretty much agree with you Paul.  Pynchon's characters often do
things that make me not "feel" them as "real."  We have to ponder what
are their motives, and clues are laid to unravel the dynamics at work
and why the choices are made, and I think that is Pynchon's goal.  For
instance, when Lake hooks up with Duece and Sloat and the threesome
have their extended menage a trois, I can't at all empathize.  But
Pynchon has his motives for this development, even though it just
doesn't feel right IMHO.  And when Webb is tortured, Pynchon's
description is almost comic/sly, playing with turns of phrase rather
than really describing Webbs pain.  Pynchon's tone seems designed to
keep the reader just outside the action.  We *understand,* or try to,
but we don't usually feel it.

David Morris