VL--IV Passivity, more active thoughts

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Rich -- William Gass's introduction to the 1993 Penguin edition of The 
Recognitions bears out your comments. I agree with both of you.

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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "rich" <richard.romeo at gmail.com>
To: <malignd at aol.com>
Cc: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 8:04 AM
Subject: Re: VL--IV Passivity, more active thoughts


> On 1/6/09, malignd at aol.com <malignd at aol.com> wrote:
>>The novel, however, is not a  collaborative art form.
>
>
> William Gaddis famously said on numerous occasions that he expected
> his readers to bring something to a work--the writer is not supposed
> to explain everything, the reader must work out things for themselves
> (I think a character in JR says about the same in that novel).
> So, though I won't argue with you regarding Pynchon's flat
> characterizations, I would claim that novels that do not insult your
> intelligence, who do not feel the need to lay it all out, who trust
> their readers, is, in some certain sense, a collaborative effort.
> However, the artist must be able to concoct such a mixture that would
> lend itself to such personal discoveries by the reader. admittedly,
> not an easy thing to do
>
> Rich
>


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