The Anti-Pynchon Author of Note?

[Mark Kohut]

Bekah,
 
I would say this: comic outrage works when it has idealism at base....we know that with Pynchon......with Roth, it isn't talked about much but I would say it involves a vision of 
interpersonal relationships that are mutually respectful.......
His 'ideal' may be too...narcissistic (?) as Henry hinted at..??........but in the last decade,
at least, he has been less narcissistic (with his leading) characters and broader, perhaps, in his vision of a deeply-flawed society. 
 
Another point of similarity between OBA and PR:(and MOST first-rate American male writers [as has been said])....fewer women on the pages, fewer positive women on the pages, fewer women as fully-rounded characters--Forster's sense---on the page.
Yet, I would argue, Pynchon EMBODIES---see current post on women's 'knowing everything' or suchlike, in AtD---the Feminine in ways Roth just can't get enough of, so to speak..I give you Oedipa Maas as (one of) TRPs self-portraits......................

--- On Sun, 6/22/08, Bekah <Bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

From: Bekah <Bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: Re: The Anti-Pynchon Author of Note?
To: markekohut at yahoo.com
Cc: "Henry" <scuffling at gmail.com>, "pynchon -l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Date: Sunday, June 22, 2008, 12:07 PM

Nice listing,  Mark.   I agree except:

2.   I don't see much idealism in Roth
6.   "post-modernist" may be used for lack of a better mainstream  
(not academic) word

I've only read a half-dozen or so by Roth - the guy is pretty prolific.

Bekah


On Jun 22, 2008, at 7:34 AM, Mark Kohut wrote:

> I'd love some p-list reflections on ways these two are alike.
>
>
> 1)comic outrage.
>
> 2)Satire: an idealism so deep, the world is almost always failing.
>
> 3)Roth's famous remark that American reality was so surreal that  
> the writer was hard-pressed to top it in fiction...And Pynchon's  
> over-the-top ness............
>
> 4)Justice?
>
> 5) *America's Puritanism and its continuing consequences...
>
> 6) both being called post-modernitists--when their new forms might  
> have no relation to that concept as defined by academics.??  
> (itchin' for an argument here)
>
> 7) Roth, much more mainstream and read, is more pessimistic than  
> Pynchon who has been missaid to be "nihilistic"---[before M
& D and  
> Against the Day]....(whose vision might
>
> be less 'hopeful' than TRPs)
>
>
> MK
>
> --- On Sun, 6/22/08, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: The Anti-Pynchon Author of Note?
> To: "Henry" <scuffling at gmail.com>
> Cc: "pynchon -l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Date: Sunday, June 22, 2008, 7:55 AM
>
> Newest one coming, Indignation, is set a bit before his 'personal  
> time".
>
> When She was Good was not his world. More thatn three people. As is  
> Letting Go, even Goodby Columbus, American Pastoral and others....
>
> The Breast is like the giant adenoid, only different..
>
> The Great American Novel is full of allusions.
>
> --- On Fri, 6/20/08, Henry <scuffling at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> From: Henry <scuffling at gmail.com>
> Subject: The Anti-Pynchon Author of Note?
> To: "'Pynchon Liste'" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Date: Friday, June 20, 2008, 10:07 AM
>
> Philip Roth? Constantly interviewed author of books concerned with  
> up to no more than three individuals, but ultimately always just  
> one; an author whose writings are never placed in times that are  
> before his own personal time or in alien geographies (never  
> encyclopedic, and no encyclopedia required). A-and his stories  
> include elements of his life that he denies are auto-biographical.  
> HENRY MU Information, Media, and Technology Consultant http:// 
> my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/henrymu
>
>


      
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