Back from the beach

[Robin Landseadel]

On Aug 3, 2009, at 5:30 AM, Carvill, John wrote:

> I still cleave to the hope (and in fact, the belief) that ATD will be
> revalued as the years pass. I know some of us hard-core Pynchonnistas
> didn't much care for it - and there were time where I personally got
> frustrated with it - but overall I still count it as a work of genius.

I'm sure it will. Mason& Dixon pretty much got off scott-free with  
plenty of critical praise in spite of its murkiness. For one thing,  
merely by virtue of its erudite flow of antique language forms, many  
critical voices had to admit there was "something" there, even if  
ultimately they either didn't or couldn't "get it." But the shifting  
voices of all those genre fictions in Against the Day, coupled with  
the often giddy & silly tone of the book made AtD a much easier target  
for self-appointed cultural warriors to rail against its inherent  
decadence. If Gravity's Rainbow were to be dropped into our collective  
consciousness at the same time AtD dropped, the critical raving would  
probably be even greater than the drubbing AtD received in some  
quarters.

The extraordinary level of satire and a consciousness of emerging  
fictional genres in Against the Day will be easier to scrye after AtD  
gets re-read by us older folk and read for the first time by younger  
audiences.