IVIV (2) Help!

[Mark Kohut]

Portrait of the Artist as an Idealistic Detective?

--- On Thu, 8/27/09, kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:

> From: kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com>
> Subject: RE: IVIV (2) Help!
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Thursday, August 27, 2009, 5:21 PM
> There've been a number of posters who
> seem to agree with Tore that IV is, in a small sense at
> least, an autobiographical novel.  After all TRP lived
> in roughly this place at roughly this time and (for those
> who know the time/place) gets the details exactly
> right.  While Pynchon, like Doc, may have been
> stoned/tripping sometimes/often/always, and partaking of all
> the hedonistic opportunities available, it's impossible for
> me to read Doc as a Pynchon analog.  The important
> thing about Pynchon during this time in this place wasn't
> that he was as hedonistic as the next guy, but that he was
> writing the greatest novel of the 20th century [or fill in
> your own superlative].  Doc may share behaviors or
> attitudes with Pynchon, but I'd say he's merely a window
> into the conventional aspects of an otherwise genius.
> 
> Laura
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> >From: Tore Rye Andersen <torerye at hotmail.com>
> 
> 
> >As has been pointed out a number of times already, IV
> feels like it draws
> >heavily upon Pynchon's own experiences, and that makes
> it a very different
> >text than his big historical novels (even though many
> of the characters
> >and scenes in those books undoubtedly also draw upon
> his experiences, e.g.
> >the scene in GR with Jessica pulling off her blouse in
> the car, if we are to 
> >believe Jules Siegel). 
> > 
> >It's interesting to consider that GR was published
> roughly 28 years after the 
> >action of the novel takes place, and it reads like a
> historical novel. IV was 
> >published 39 years after the plot is set, and it
> doesn't read like a historical 
> >novel at all. It reads more like a
> semi-autobiographical yarn of the kind
> >old geezers are wont to tell. This particular old
> geezer tells it better
> >than most, IMHO.
> 
> 
> 
>