The flattened American landscape of minor writers

[Robin Landseadel]

On Feb 27, 2009, at 6:58 AM, Carvill John wrote:

> Moorcock seems to be having his cake and eating it too, making out  
> that he was onto Pynchon way back, and implies that he and his  
> cronies were all hip to entropy as a metaphor before Pynchon's  
> story. And he seems determined to wrap Pynchon up in a 'speculative  
> fiction' blanket...

Moorcock states:

	. . .FAMILIAR WITH THOMAS Pynchon’s work since the 1960s
	when we ran his ‘Entropy’ in New Worlds . . .

Michael Moorcock became editor of the periodical "New Worlds" back in  
1964, demonstrating that Moorcock WAS onto Pynchon way back.  
Seriously, it should not come as a shock to find out that someone  
interested in William.S. Burroughs and J.G. Ballard would be concerned  
with entropy:

http://www.ballardian.com/angry-old-men-michael-moorcock-on-jg-ballard

  While Pynchon's gifts extend beyond what is usually found in  
"Speculative Fiction"—for that matter, the same applies to Philip K.  
Dick [in spite of and sometimes because of his flaws as a writer]— 
Against the Day and Gravity's Rainbow both have many homages to SF.  
These are not moot points. What I found particularly interesting about  
this review was its reference to string theory, something that most  
reviewers of AtD did not [and probably could not] pick up on. In any  
case, Pynchon's writings are a bit beyond the usual high/low cultural  
criticisms, as he has a tendency to mix all levels of cultural  
erudition into his blender. Not that there's anything wrong with  
that . . .


> I dunno, it's a weird review, like he wants to claim Pynchon for sci- 
> fi yet doesn't want to face the fact that Pynchon's work far  
> outstrips all the other authors he mentions.

	. . .The first half of this romance certainly recaptures the
	prevalent mood of pre-1914 America, when ‘wizards’ such as
	Edison and Tesla were public legends, but, like Twain before
	him, Pynchon introduces a questioning, deeply elegaic note
	into his story of Yankee ‘can-do’ optimism, producing a tall tale
	entirely serious in intention, if only rarely in tone. . .

I would have no problem comparing Pynchon to Twain as regards quality  
of writing. As I recall, a great many readers/reviewers had issues  
comparing the Pynchon of Against the Day to the Pynchon of Gravity's  
Rainbow and many still do.


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