It's hard to believe Thomas Pynchon wrote a sentence as bad as this one

[Mark Kohut]

LOL


--- On Mon, 7/28/08, kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:

> From: kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com>
> Subject: Re: It's hard to believe Thomas Pynchon wrote a sentence as bad as this one
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Monday, July 28, 2008, 1:07 PM
> The "Reader, she bit him" sequence on p. 666
> evoked similarly negative reactions.  Was it a bad parody
> of Jane Austen or just bad?  It's always possible to
> ascribe complex motivations behind every sentence, every
> decision TRP makes, but sometimes a Tatzelwurm is just a
> Tatzelwurm.
> 
> Laura
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> >From: Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com>
> >Sent: Jul 28, 2008 12:03 PM
> >To: Pynchon-L <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> >Subject: It's hard to believe Thomas Pynchon wrote
> a sentence as bad as this one
> >
> >27.7.08
> >It's hard to believe Thomas Pynchon wrote a
> sentence as bad as this one.
> >
> >"After she had given in to the notion of being
> doubled up on, she
> >found herself going out of the way looking for it,
> usually one in her
> >mouth, the other from behind, sometimes in her ass, so
> she got quickly
> >used to tasting her own fluids mixed with shit."
> >
> >There's more before and after that, mentions of
> being chained to a bed
> >with leather hobbles and an instance of "you dirty
> fuckmouth whore"
> >but that sentence is representative of the section of
> "Against the
> >Day" in question. I've seen it referred to as
> the "Cowboy S+M"
> >section; it's just one page but it's so poorly
> written and oddly out
> >of place that I've been puzzling about it on and
> off since I read it.
> >
> >The rest of the book is excellent. Hugh Kenner wrote a
> little piece
> >about Joyce beginning "Ulysses" in naturalism
> and ending it in parody
> >and in "Against the Day" Pynchon seems so far
> to take the opposite
> >tack, the entire book opening firmly in a parody of
> boy's adventure
> >magazine (Doc Savage-type stuff) but becoming more
> grounded in tone as
> >the demands of reality intrude on the characters. So
> there are the
> >Chums of Chance and their airship The Inconvenience in
> the
> >aforementioned whiz-bang mode, Lew Basnight beginning
> in a Kafkaesque
> >version of Chicago (complete with unspecified sins and
> surreal dive
> >hotels) and proceeding through the American West to
> England and a
> >version of Blavatsky and Yeats's mysticisms, Merle
> Rideout and his
> >daughter Dahlia in an off-kilter version of "Paper
> Moon" and so on,
> >all at the turn of the century, and alternately
> interacting and
> >working at cross-purposes.
> >
> >The S+M scene is part of the Western revenge saga of
> the Traverse
> >family that takes up large parts of the book at a time
> and which
> >actually I frequently find the hardest sections to get
> through, though
> >I'm trying to reserve judgment until I actually
> finish the whole
> >thing. That particular scene makes sense as regards the
> motifs of the
> >book, the journeys of the characters involved, and
> setting up a
> >situation which will apparently be crucial to the
> Traverse storyline
> >but it's the execution of it that bugs me. Maybe
> Pynchon was parodying
> >cheap smut like Tijuana Bibles or Penthouse stories but
> that's a
> >stretch, it doesn't read as parody or homage in any
> way . . . I
> >respect Pynchon's writing ability, so it comes as
> even more a
> >surprise, especially in the middle of a work so
> well-written and
> >elsewise engaging.
> >
> >My only other experience with Pynchon is the first 30
> or so pages of
> >"Gravity's Rainbow" but I've read
> about him and some miscellanea of
> >his, letters, essays etc. and many of his pet interests
> and issues
> >show up in "Against the Day", some reviewers
> having called it a sort
> >of summation of his life's writing (guy is pretty
> old by now). Ideas
> >about capitalism, the use of anarchy as a way to oppose
> >industrialization and its effect on worker's
> rights, the acquisition
> >of technology for profitable or military means, the
> uses of theories
> >and hypotheses otherwise marginalized by the mainstream
> scientific
> >community and, very interesting to me, the sense of a
> fictive space
> >(that term is used in reference to the Chums of Chance,
> with Lew
> >Basnight it's the Invisible Area, and to the
> scientists it's the is
> >it/isn't it existence of a substance called
> Aether), a space where
> >these characters can exist indefinitely, only half-seen
> by the rest of
> >society, but a space constantly threatened by the
> encroachment of
> >actual "reality", usually represented by the
> needs of industrialists
> >like Scarsdale Vibe or the shadowy Organization that
> sends the Chums
> >on their missions. An early example is the first
> chapter, where the
> >1893 Chicago World's Fair is described as wrapped
> in fiction and
> >wonder, but the moment the Chums leave it, they're
> prey to regular
> >human emotions and pettiness, reflected by a shift in
> their dialogue
> >and the narrative voice.
> >
> >Parallels can also be drawn to the current political
> climate, if
> >that's your thing. Blinded by their own arrogance
> and confidence in
> >their abilities, a scientific expedition brings a
> horrible power to a
> >large metropolis (never named, but clearly New York
> City), initiating
> >one cataclysmic night of flames where people flee giant
> clouds of
> >smoke that rush down the city streets, and clog transit
> systems in a
> >panic to escape. The city is afterward described as
> forgetting the
> >actual event, the nature and significance of the
> attack, only
> >remembering a vague injury to their superiority and
> paying their
> >respects to it by leaving the charred portion of the
> city intact,
> >establishing it as a memorial by erecting a gate with a
> quote from
> >Dante etched on the arch.
> >
> >All in all, an excellent book so far and one I
> don't mind as my
> >introduction to Pynchon, but I'd still like answers
> about the cowboy
> >threesome.
> >
> >http://phenoptosis.blogspot.com/2008/07/its-hard-to-believe-thomas-pynchon.html
> >
> >"No symbols where none intended." --Samuel
> Beckett