Noir Classics

[Mark Kohut]

Nope, I say....it all coheres; it is a lifetime's poetic-like layers of associations. His deepest vision [of life] is in the details.

Which is its genius----and, or, see Wood, others--- why it falls quite short of greatness as fiction---and is only LIKE poetry.

--- On Thu, 7/9/09, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Noir Classics
> To: "Robin Landseadel" <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
> Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Thursday, July 9, 2009, 4:09 PM
> The logic here being that if it fits
> the "strictures" of picaresque, all criticism is
> petty and personal?  Picaresque means beyond critcism?
> 
> 
> On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 3:02 PM,
> Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
> wrote:
> 
> George Plimpton pointed out the good/bad ages ago in his
> NYT review of "V.":
> 
>        For the author, the form of the picaresque is
> convenient: he can
>        string together the short stories he has at hand
> (publishers are
> 
>        reluctant to publish short-story collections,
> which would suggest
>        the genre is perhaps a type of compensation).
> Moreover -- the
>        well-made, the realistic not being his concern
> -- the author can
> 
>        afford to take chances, to be excessive, even
> prolix, knowing
>        that in a work of great length stretches of
> doubtful value can be
>        excused. The author can tell his favorite jokes,
> throw in a song,
> 
>        indulge in a fantasy or so, include his own
> verse, display an
>        intimate knowledge of such disparate subjects as
> physics,
>        astronomy, art, jazz, how a nose-job is done,
> the wildlife in the
>        New York sewage system. These indeed are some of
> the topics
> 
>        which constitute a recent and remarkable example
> of the genre:
>        a brilliant and turbulent first novel published
> this month by a
>        young Cornell graduate, Thomas Pynchon. He calls
> his book
>        "V."
> 
> 
> http://www.thomaspynchon.com/v/reviews.html
> 
> All of Pynchon's books somehow find a way to pull in a
> trainload of digressions, misdirections and strung together
> short stories. Some folks get driven batty by the procedure,
> others just go along for the ride. Guess it all depends on
> whether your a passenger or a driver.
> 
> 
> 
>