The flattened American landscape of minor writers

[rich]

I agree with what you say/and demonstrate John but I think its pretty
narrow minded to exclusively name drop writers of a certain affinity
(in this case white, male straight, jewish for most part) as the best
of the best of post-war American fiction.

rich


On 2/25/09, Carvill John <johncarvill at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>>> Why do these slavering articles on Updike (and Roth) in the English
>>> press always discount, in fact often fail entirely to mention, Pynchon?
>
>>Because they're not about him? And he's not dead yet?
>>David Gentle
>
>
> Deep, deep sigh.
>
> Assuming you're not just being rude, but are genuinely missing my point,
> I'll explain one more time what I meant. When the press - and I am talking
> mainly about the English press, because even factoring in teh internet,
> living in England you tend to read teh English press most, and yeah I know
> the McEwan article wasn't in teh English press but he is an English writer -
> when the press run an article on one of the Big Beasts of post-war American
> literature, be they alive or dead, they tend to mention that particular
> writer's 'peers' or 'contemporaries', yeah? So, for instance, a Roth profile
> will tend to mention Updike, Bellow, etc. But they often omit Pynchon.
>
> Here's an example of what I had in mind, from the English press, recently
> (well, late last year):
>
> 'The story of my lives'
> by Robert McCrum
> The Observer, 21 September 2008
>
> "From Portnoy's Complaint to American Pastoral, Philip Roth's jostling alter
> egos have provided the literary world with some of the great masterpieces of
> the past half-century. Here, as he celebrates his 75th birthday, the
> novelist talks to Robert McCrum about losing friends, living alone and why
> the next book will be his last"
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/sep/21/philiproth.fiction
>
> This article mentions Norman Mailer, JD Salinger, Updike, Saul Bellow, etc.
> But not Pynchon.
>
>
>
> Here's another Guardian article, the title says it all really:
>
> 'Updike was good, but Roth is the greatest'
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2009/feb/03/updike-roth-books
>
>
>
> Here's another Roth profile, form the Independent, which mentions Updike and
> Bellow, but not Pynchon:
>
> http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/philip-roth-america-the-dutiful-926481.html
>
>
> See the pattern? Ok so my point really was that I'm often frustrated to see
> these other writers (great though they are) mentioned but Pynchon ignored.
> That's all. Not any kind of big contenhtious argument being put forward,
> just a little jocular 'Updike Schmupdike! What about Thomas Pynchon?'.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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