Pynchon's back catalogue

[Rob Jackson]

On 28/07/2009, at 9:29 AM, pynchon-l-digest wrote:

> Date: Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:35:11 +0200
> From: Tore Rye Andersen <torerye at hotmail.com>
> Subject: RE: Pynchon's back catalogue
>
> Rob Jackson:
>
>> The idea of a "World Historical Project" as you've set it out is a
>> somewhat Eurocentric approach, one which I'd argue is anathema to
>> Pynchon's historical sensibilities as evidenced in both GR and M&D.
>
> Well, sorry to be the one to break it to you, but the majority of GR,
> a third of M&D and about half of AtD takes place in old Yurrup.

A third of M&D you say? So "America" (pp. 257-713) is Europe in your  
book? And the Chicago World Fair in AtD? Right-o.

... And I'm not sure that I agree that "the Zone" in GR, let alone the  
majority of Part 4, is actually "Europe" in any real sense of a  
continuous or intact historical, cultural or social identity.

But my point is that the notion of a "World Historical Project" which  
you're putting forward is anathema to the historical sensibility  
revealed in the novels, which is always trying to get outside the  
Eurocentric worldview and present the course and consequences of  
history from the perspectives of the colonised and the oppressed, the  
minorities and the marginalised.

This is as true for Lot49 and VL as for the other novels, so your  
carve-up of the oeuvre, which places the three novels which are set  
more recently in the U.S. outside this so-called "World Historical  
Project", is a Eurocentric one, and one which ignores other, rather  
more important thematic continuities, in the works.

Essentially you're just classifying them into the longer texts and the  
shorter texts. Which is fine and dandy, but there are other ways of  
apprehending and appreciating the works.

all best