How people think of Pynchon these days . . . .
Ian Livingston
igrlivingston at gmail.com
Tue Dec 29 13:50:12 CST 2009
Believe me, as a native Californian, there is no such thing as a
California insider. Hell, if you move 50 miles, you have to start all
over. Might 's well be from Maine. Probably a response to the
continual influx of population from other states, countries,
continents, (planets? dimensions?). Who knows where some of 'em come
from. Fact remains, in California we're all outsiders. Part of why I'm
a Dakotan these days. Still an outsider, but at least there's a reason
for it now.
Regardless of all that, this Ken Johnson guy might be a creation of
Ayn Rand. His affectation as art critic is pretty vapid. But, hey, he
knows that there is such a person as Thomas Pynchon who sometimes
writes characters out of California "subculture," and he feels
altogether justified dropping the name to make himself sound mart.
On Tue, Dec 29, 2009 at 1:20 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> This article isn't a "NYTs perspective." It's a blatant name-dropping
> hook attempting to allude to depth. The only hook between Pynchon and
> Wiley is that both burst onto the scene from early 70's California.
> That, and IV's California setting. Wiley seems a fine artist, but
> neither he nor Pynchon are "California Outsiders" in any real sense.
> Both are insiders with 70's early fame.
>
> On Tue, Dec 29, 2009 at 12:13 PM, Robert Mahnke <rpmahnke at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Interesting that (at least there) the NYT sees Pynchon as a Californian outsider, rather than adopting him as a native.
>>
>>> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/29/arts/design/29wiley.html?_r=1&ref=arts
>>
>
--
"liber enim librum aperit."
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