James Wood On Pynchon's Characters

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Wood's sole purpose in listing V and COL49 seems to be to pointedly omit GR. WOuld have been more honest to leave Pynchon off the list.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com>

>
>On Mon, Nov 9, 2009 at 6:09 AM, Heikki Raudaskoski
><hraudask at sun3.oulu.fi> wrote:
>
>> Thanks, Dave.  Is this the one positive gesture Wood has made in Pynchon's direction?
>
>"From way down the hall, a tiny head appears around a corner, a tiny
>hand comes out and gives Slothrop the tiny finger." (GR, Pt. II, p.
>199)
>
>> On Mon, 9 Nov 2009, Dave Monroe wrote:
>>
>>> On Mon, Nov 9, 2009 at 5:31 AM, Heikki Raudaskoski
>>> <hraudask at sun3.oulu.fi> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > Correct me if I'm wrong, but as I recall it, Wood doesn't differentiate
>>> > between individual works in his judgment of Pynchon. For him, Pynchon
>>> > has been a "hysterical realist" all along, always as incapable of creating
>>> > characters one could care about.
>>>
>>> Thomas Pynchon: The Crying of Lot 49; V
>>>
>>> http://marksarvas.blogs.com/elegvar/2009/02/james-woods-best-books-since-1945-circa-1994.html
>