pynchon-l-digest V2 #7335

[Tore Rye Andersen]

John Bailey:

> I draw a distinction between P's novels which do relentlessly track a
> leading character - Oedipa, Doc - or two - Benny & Stencil, Mason &
> Dixon - and the kaleidescopic narratives of GR, VL and AtD. I agree
> that perhaps the authorial voice in these does align itself with
> particular characters at many points, but I reckon that overstates
> things. In fact, in M&D and AtD the authorial voice is more of an
> hilarious 'character' than the ostensible subjects it narrates. In M&D
> this voice might be attributable to Rev. Cherrycoke but it wanders off
> a fair bit. I still maintain that AtD's 'voice' is very much concerned
> with genres, their imitation and their about-with-messing.

Good stuff! I absolutely agree that it's important to distinguish between
P's novels when it comes to narrators. M&D seems a bit more complex than
AtD in that regard, since there is, as you point out, more than one narrator
(Cherrycoke is the narrator who steals the most of the spotlight, but 
occasionally we visit the frame-narrative, where someone narrates Cherrycoke 
narrating - and what the f*** happens when The Ghastly Fop and Cherrycoke's 
narrative bleed into each other in chapters 53 and 54!? Dodgy stuff.)

> Re-reading AtD at the moment, I was struck by what must be P's only
> deployment of the first person in fiction - the Chums of Chance author
> suddenly mentions letters he's (?) received from regular readers.

There are a couple of instances in GR as well where the narrator - or at
least what seems to be some aspect of the narrator - points to himself.
There is the passage on pages 738-39, for instance, where an "I" suddenly
surfaces within brackets. Also, on p. 738 the narrator speaks of Slothrop's
"chroniclers" (which would include, one supposes, himself) and of the 
lousy Tarot card which fate has dealt him. And on page 755, the narrator
once again invokes himself as "your correspondent" - which would just 
seem to be a fancy way of saying "I". So the narrator does seem to pop up
from time to time in GR, although not as clearly as in AtD. B-but who exactly
is it that flirts "away in the mirrorframe in something green-striped,
pantalooned, and ruffled" on p. 122? 		 	   		  
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