James goes to the dogs

[Campbel Morgan]

On Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 6:50 AM, Mark Kohut<markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:

> James Wood, great reader and Pynchon naysayer, has spoken of him (and others) under the phrase "hysterical realists". Bad lenses in my opinion:  not realism and hysterical is a loaded way to characterize outrage/satire.

Hysterical realism, also called recherché postmodernism or maximalism,
is a literary genre typified by a strong contrast between elaborately
absurd prose, plotting, or characterization and careful detailed
investigations of real specific social phenomena.

If the shoe fits. And, it does. It's not a matter of Realism vs.
Romance/Satire. The "real" is the real and specific targets of the
outrage/satire. Pynchon's cartooning, Chuck Jones, Frederico Felline,
Terry Gilliam . . .of characters is one example. Characterization, how
authors make characters, is hysterical-real. Nixon in GR. Wood's, an
excellent reader with an attitude, correctly traces the Broken Estate
through Melville to Pynchon.