A Reviewer's Hunch about Pynchon's Fans

[Will Layman]

In my experience, the fallacy in Schneider's "hunch" is that most  
Pynchon fans are oriented toward "science, technology . . ." first  
and foremost.  Not so from what I can tell.  Pynchon may be the rare  
literary novelist who has a following among the physics major crowd,  
but most of his fans are rabid readers.  Sure, they lean toward  
Vollmann, Richard Powers, Don DeLillo, and other meta-novelists, but  
we ALL lean toward our favorite styles, right?

What Schneider is REALLY saying is that he doesn't like post-modern  
styled novels -- novels that mash together high/low, politics/culture/ 
science, novels that simulate our world through their encyclopedic  
approach.  This is a fair enough opinion.  But it's disingenuous to  
hide that opinion inside an attack on a writer's fans: "They like  
him, and they are illiterate cretins, so his work stinks."

See, it turns out that we are literate enough to recognize an  
indirect ad hominem attack when we read one.  Therefore everything we  
like must be brilliant.

-- Will Layman

On May 27, 2007, at 12:24 PM, rich wrote:

> funny, but in my case this has a kernel of truth as I've read less and
> less fiction over the past five years or so from what I used to read.
>
> what can I say, al qaeda is alot more interesting
>
> rich
>
>> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>> I have a hunch that Pynchon's zealous fans don't read
>> many novels, so they're not bothered by his flaws. They
>> cherish their idol because he presents the world as they
>> know it: science, technology, history, politics, high and low
>> culture all mashed together to make a garish gallimaufry.
>> The results might be messy but so is the society the
>> Pynchonites inhabit.
>>
>> ----Review by Howard Schneider
>> May-June 2007  THE HUMANIST
>> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>>