The Anti-Pynchon Author of Note?

[Ian Livingston]

Wow, Pynchon a nihilist?  That does take some misreading, but if we're
talking about modernist / 'post'-modernist (casual snicker 'n' snort)
critics, that's no great unlikelihood.  I often come back to Joyce's take on
criticism, where Stephen D gives his talk on Shakespeare as Hamlet -- when
Socrates leaves his house he meets Socrates -- a critic sees himself instead
of the work of the author.  Jung called it projection, which brings up

"Good" and "bad":  what about OBA's general inclination to the old
alchemical union of opposites -- you know, where the two disappear into
hermaphroditic both-ness?

Can't really comment on Roth.  Guess I'll have to get around to reading him
before autumn.  Sounds like a worthy read.  But doesn't McCarthy have the
prize for pessimism?

As to anti-Pynchon, how about syndicated news?  Meaningless invention passed
off as truth -- a nearly direct opposition to TRP.


On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 7:34 AM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> 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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