Thomas Pynchon exploits history for his own selfish ends

[Mark Kohut]

Sorry, but I am going to repeat that it is a massive, richer-than-any other, cornily flawed-
MASTERPIECE...that is "AGAINST THE DAY" is......

Who said a masterpiece is a book so rich it has to have flaws?

Who said even Homer nodded.

I read once how HAMLET took about 200 years to have it's digressive richness felt...(see essays on it in the Norton Critical Hamlet...more than one tells of its slow recognition)


--- On Thu, 9/25/08, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Thomas Pynchon exploits history for his own selfish ends
> To: "David Patty" <navan.ghee at gmail.com>
> Cc: "Dave Monroe" <against.the.dave at gmail.com>, pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Thursday, September 25, 2008, 11:09 AM
> No, no, no!  It's a literary catastrophe!  It's
> imperative that were
> indefinitely "suspend" the P-list lest Western
> Culture falls prey
> again to the next Dark Ages!
> 
> OK.  Let's just acknowledge that when the author of the
> ground-breaking, controversial (at the time), powerhouse
> and
> cipher-laden novel that is GR produces a new and seemingly
> ambitious
> (over 1000 page) novel, one expects it to strive for
> greatness.  And
> when one's novels abound in ciphers of all sorts, the
> implication of
> depth beneath it all is inescapable.  Thus the
> reviewer's line, "The
> guy's not a god, he's just a very good writer
> who's not as good as he
> used to be.."
> 
> I think that pretty well sums it up.
> 
> David Morris
> 
> On Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 9:47 AM, David Patty
> <navan.ghee at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Seems like a grand overreaction on the reviewer's
> part.  He didn't like it,
> > fine, no problem;
> >
> >[...]
> >
> > (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.)