Prising some Character and Emotion out of Pynchon's Books

[Robin Landseadel]

On Jul 25, 2009, at 1:09 AM, Dave Monroe wrote:

> On Fri, Jul 24, 2009 at 11:22 PM, Michael
> Bailey<michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Emotions and Characters in Pynchon
>
> Always glad to read any rumination here, but I gotta admit, all this
> stuff about "character" and "heart" and whatever is simply beside the
> point for me, if even an issue at all.  So many people seem to try so
> hard to produce at least the effect of such things, and end up cloying
> at best in doing so.  SF is a case in point.  Compare Frank Herbert's
> Dune books with son Brian's + Kevin J. Anderson's pre/se/interquels.
> Note the excess of the mundane in any given Harry Turtledove novel
> vs., say, the uncanny detailing of a PKD novel.  U.s.w., et soforthiam
> ....

  Philip K. Dick expresses the agonies of his character's plights— 
their "roundness"— all the while expressing the characters thoughts  
and conversations through a veil of flat affect. It's an amazing and  
undervalued gift.