Vice, Henry James, Raymond Chandler, etc.

[Campbel Morgan]

As Paul noted, it's quite a lot to tackle in this forum;
characterization is a huge & complex topic. That said, and while I do
recognize that many a P-List participant can not abide a critical
term, even a standard one like "realism" or fundamental, though
arguably no longer useful,  critical idea like flat character/round
character, and that the interest in, what is surely the most thrilling
series of events involving the BA of this Listserve, that is the epic
battles of the prodigious enfant terrible, James Wood and the old yet
terrible king of infantile and hysterical realism, is limited here,
although I'm still astounded by the resistance to a discussion of
literature on a listserve that purports to be an open discussion of
the most important author writing in English, certainly in America,
that is, if we measure importance with a critical yard stick. In any
event, so it goes.

This article sums it up better than I can so ...you can find it
online. Excellent points on HJ and how Pynchon "copies" HJ in AGTD.
Fascinating factoid: HJ was writing a novel about time travel when
time ran out on him. Well, I hear he's hanging with his Chum Santos
Dumont in a heavenly harbor just outside of Grace.

PS I still find reading of American fiction, Wood is a Brit living in
the US, as evolving from Brithish novels (Fielding, Dickens) absurd.
While our declearation of literary independence was delayed, we did
win independence. And, while we also had the exchange authors HJ,
Eliot, the lost gen and so on, we can trace Pynchon through American
Literature. The argument, and it's not mine, it has been around since
GR was published, and I was just a little kid then, that GR is
indebted to Moby-Dick is solid. That M&D, not AGTD, is Pynchon's
Confidence Man is also in the academic literature.

PPPPPSSSSS  Now I'm pissing, but the ironies in this battle between
Pynchon and Wood are wonderful; both are compassionate conservative
types who distrust nostalgia and religion, but are nearly reactionary
in their need to defy the gnostic machine of numbing dehumaization.

T

James Wood's Case Against "Hysterical Realism" and Thomas Pynchon.
Antioch Review, 2008
 by JEFFREY STAIGER
On Sat, Jul 25, 2009 at 6:01 AM, Carvill John<johncarvill at hotmail.com> wrote:
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> Foax
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> I'm tuning out now for a week or so. Don't want any more anxiety of influence (or bullshit) to affect the writing of my IV review. Didn't think too much of Dugdale's Times piece, I see he's still panning ATD. That's the last review I'll read till I've written whatever I come up with.
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> Anyway, browsing through an old copy of Raymond Chandler's 'Speaking' - an edited selection of his letters, well worth a read in its own right - I found this quote about Hollywood, and the pros and cons of adopting the Hollywood technique of writing by dictation.....
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> "I can see where a special vice might also come out of this kind of writing [...] My revered Henry James went to pieces a bit when he began to dictate."
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> you can read it on google books, here (page 115 et seq):
> http://books.google.com/books?id=FRPk5m7Oq9YC&printsec=frontcover&dq=raymond+chandler+speaking
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> A great line I fully intend to steal, regarding the need to have the murderer revealed, or a mystery solved, in a crime novel or film (but also to my mind applicable to whether or not you need a believable, 'three dimensional' character who 'grows' etc.) Chandler calls that 'the olive in the martini'.
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> Also just wanted to second what Doug said about Tim Ware's work on Pynchon, the wikis in particular, they're a terrific resource, and he deserves massive credit for putting in so much work. Look forward to discussing IV here, and also to the invaluable IV wiki.
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> Cheers
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> JC
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