Guess you Had to be there

[Carvill John]

Hey, Robin, what's all this about the CIA? How come you never mentioned this before?


:-)


Well now, for most people over this side of The Pond, places like New York resonate, whether you've been there or not, I mean you sort of think you know them, a bit, but L.A. (and California in general) is somewhere few of us have any real grasp of. I know nothing about the relative merits of Santa Monica or Malibu, etc etc. I appreciate how much extra frisson there was in Vineland for folks like Robin, but even without that the sense of place (and time) comes very strongly off the page, even for someone as know-nothing about L.A. as myself.


Rich, I'm sure sorry you didn't enjoy IV. It's hard to know how you found it so bad that it was a struggle to finish it? What was your main problem? Too light? NOt enough 'typical Pynchon' in it? All those pussy jokes? 



----------------------------------------
> From: robinlandseadel at comcast.net
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Re: Guess you Had to be there
> Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2009 08:13:17 -0700
>
> On Aug 6, 2009, at 7:43 AM, rich wrote:
>
>> Finished IV this morning--I understand most here love the book and
>> that's OK but I really didn't like it.
>> I can give you reasons but what's the point. I'll just say maybe you
>> had to be there. It was a struggle to finish
>>
>> maybe when i get my head straight I can elaborate a bit more
>>
>> rich
>
> You might be right.
>
> I was there. I seriously doubt I'd like Vineland nearly as much if it
> wasn't as if Pynchon scripted my mother's life in the Green Triangle.
> My Grandfather, who lived in Culver City, had a photo—not a print, a
> photo— of the Spruce Goose. The presence of Howard Hughes' enterprises
> were ubiquitous in and around L.A. when I was living down there. I
> remember the TRW sign, I remember the ARPA sign. There's related CIA
> material in Inherent Vice that corresponds closely with the CIA
> material in The Crying of Lot 49. And I've always loved the Borgesian
> confusion of Raymond Chandler's plots.
>
> Sorry you didn't like it.
>
>

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