Thomas Pynchon exploits history for his own selfish ends

[Mark Kohut]

agreed.....I have had so many false starts with so many "classics"--including TRP--- that
I now need to show a passport at the library.....


--- On Thu, 9/25/08, Tim Strzechowski <dedalus204 at comcast.net> wrote:

> From: Tim Strzechowski <dedalus204 at comcast.net>
> Subject: Re: Thomas Pynchon exploits history for his own selfish ends
> To: "David Patty" <navan.ghee at gmail.com>, "David Morris" <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> Cc: "Dave Monroe" <against.the.dave at gmail.com>, pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Thursday, September 25, 2008, 12:12 PM
> Forgive me if I've brought this up before, but ...
> 
> I have always been of the notion that as readers, we have
> to be "ready" to read a book ... ready in terms of
> our reading ability + our body of life experience.  It
> varies for all of us.  When I was about 23, I bought a copy
> of Ulysses and tried to read it ... couldn't do it, so
> it sat on my shelf for about a decade collecting dust ... In
> my early thirties, I again tried reading it and, lo and
> behold, it was a magnificent experience!  The same thing has
> happened at various points for me when reading GR ... when I
> first got my copy, I made about a dozen false starts over a
> few years, then it finally clicked ... I can't explain
> it, but my own reading experience has shown that one needs
> to be "ready" to read a book.
> 
> By the way, I'm still NOT ready to read all of Proust
> ...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > 
> > 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...