IVIV (1) Intro

[Tore Rye Andersen]

János:

> It is really subjective but I see a drop of intensity between parts 1 
> and 2 [of GR], as if he grew tired after driving at space speed, and 
> I think In the Zone is rather uneven (the Nordhausen episode e.g. is 
> too much on the improvisation side [...]).
 
Sacrilege! 
 
Well, as someone who actually translated the damn thing, I guess you're
more entitled than most of us to your opinion, and as you point out, de
gustibus non est disputandum, and so forth. But if I could keep only one 
chapter of GR, it would actually be the Nordhausen chapter, where Slothrop 
goes under the mountain. Not necessarily because it is the 'best' chapter
in GR (what a laughable concept), but because I see it as one of the most
representative chapters of the novel, with pretty much every aspect of 
Pynchon in there: The goofy humor, the historical research, the lyrical 
intensity, the irony, the pathos, the rapid shifts of rhetorical register,
the descent/ascent into well-nigh impenetrability (see e.g. p. 303), the
limericks, the surrealism, the hyperrealism, u.s.w. It even has a fabulous 
orgy "full of poppies, play, singing, and carrying on," if only in Slothrop's 
imagination.
 
> I shall revise my equation of perfection with boredom, as Nathanael West 
> or Evelyn Waugh (to name two authors with a Pynchon connection) and even F. 
> Scott Fitzgerald can be perfect _and_ fun.
 
In his introduction to The Great Gatsby, the late great Tony Tanner wrote:
 
"It is word-perfect and inexhaustible. The Great Gatsby is, I believe, the
most perfectly crafted work of fiction to have come out of America."

On certain days I am inclined to agree.
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