Thomas Pynchon exploits history for his own selfish ends

[David Patty]

There go those pesky state secrets ag'in, allus gettin' out...

Seems like a grand overreaction on the reviewer's part.  He didn't like it,
fine, no problem; it's the *extent* of the reaction that would seem to
indicate certain folks were expecting, ah, the unpromised sequel to the
Illiad or something.  Which is kind of like stacking the deck against
yourself, innit?

Folks griped about 'Vineland' at the time, about how it was no 'Gravity's
Rainbow'.  Well of -course- it wasn't.  But it weren't nothin' *personal*...
So why put yourself out with a bunch'a sturm & drang?  Just accept that it
didn't suit ya and, you know, move on.

(None of this is specifically directed at you, Mr. Morris--  it's just an
odd tendency I've noticed aggegate around Pynchon's books, namely that of
folks, particularly fans, taking fiction altogether too seriously.)

That said, I recall thinking 'V.' was deeply unsatisfying, esp. in
comparison to 'CoL49', 'GR' & 'Vineland' (which I've -always- loved and
consider one of his finer works)...  But that was six years ago, and it was
mainly my fault for reading 'V.' *last.*  Hell, I should've taken a
pallative between books, something simple & stupid, but I didn't and wound
up unhappy.  Now I'm going through it again and having a blast.

Sometimes it's as simple as just not being in the proper frame of mind.
A-and then again, as I said, sometimes a body just don't like a book.  It's
only natural...
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20080925/1b56b801/attachment-0001.html>