The flattened American landscape of minor writers

[Great Quail]

John writes,
 
> Pynchon surely qualifies, along
> with Roth, as a 'giant' of contemporary American letters, unless McEwan just
> meant 'giant of mainstream acclaim'.

What about Cormac McCarthy? I would add him there, certainly.

> As for Moorcock and Moore, I loved 'Watchmen' back in the day, and I read some
> Moorcock fantasy stuff when I was a kid, but when I finally got round to his
> supposed masterpiece, 'Mother London', I wasn't that impressed.

I love Moorcock, and his influence on the world of speculative fiction
cannot be truly appraised. But frankly, I prefer his "sword and sorcery"
stuff, which are genre high-watermarks. "Mother London" was so-so; of his
so-called more serious works, I prefer "Breakfast in the Ruins" and "Behold
the Man." 

> To compare Moorcock with
> Pynchon is laughable.

I know what you are saying, but I disagree. I think Pynchon is a superior
novelist from a purely "literary" standpoint (whatever that means! "You know
it when you see it," etc.), but they actually share a lot of themes,
particularly regarding the fluid nature of identity and the energies of
sexual liberation. And on a more superficial level, well -- some sections of
Against the Day -- the Chums of Chance, the sand-ships -- could have been
lifted right out of Moorcock, if not lifted and skewed at a different
angle... So, yes -- They can be compared, and I think *should* be compared.

> Yes, there are some great comics, yes Watchmen is intelligent
> and multilayered etc., but can it really stand comparison with the best actual
> novels of the post-war period, with Roth or Bellow or Pynchon, with 'Herzog'
> or 'Humboldt's Gift', 'Gravity's Rainbow' or 'Mason & Dixon', 'The
> Counterlife' or 'My Life as a Man', the Rabbit Books, etc.? Surely the answer
> has to be, however regretfully, 'no'?

Sorry -- I think the answer has to be "yes." I think that "The Watchmen" and
"From Hell" stand at the pinnacle of their medium, the comic or "graphic
novel." There are themes, passages, ideas, even *sentences* in "Watchmen"
that affect me just as much as anything in Pynchon.

But more to your point -- I think you are demanding a skewed playing field.
The mediums are so different -- I am not sure it's fair to nail "the novel"
to the masthead and proclaim, "All written word must compete for this coin!"

I mean, I can just as easily imagine over at an Alan Moore group, someone
saying, "Can 'Against the Day' stand in comparison to 'The Watchmen?' Why,
Pynchon makes no attempt to juxtapose language and imagery, and there's all
these crazy parts with cowboys having sex with poodles, and women are
entirely two-dimensional characters!"

--Quail