pynchon-l-digest V2 #7227

[John Carvill]

Well, I guess *I* will speak up. When we're ranking Pynchon's books,
of course we're way, way into subjective territory right from the
first step. And we have to distinguish between what we think is his
'best' book, and which one we enjoyed the most, maybe but not always
the same book. So, is COL49 a 'better' book than Vineland? Well, I
certainly think so. But I would rate Vineland much higher on my
enjoyment scale.

So, I would certainly find it hard to argue with you when you say IV
is bottom of the ratings, in terms of being his 'best' book. And I
wouldn't even say I'd place it *that* much higher on my 'enjoyment
scale' either. But I think I would put it above 'SLow Learner',
'specially if yu snipped off the introduction and/or 'The Secret
Integration'. Hell, even 'V.' I found a bit of a slog to read first
time round. I kept at it, because I knew it was good stuff, and I
liked parts of it, but I still rate it as the hardest of Pynchon's
books to read.

IV's lightness is part of its appeal. It has to be taken on its own
terms. If you want a whopping big Pynchon book, with all sorts of
serious themes and resonances and gravitas etc., we've still got
Against the Day and who can say they've fully digested that? I know
some feel ATD was too flawed, too loose; I wonder what's teh
correlation between those folk and those who don't like IV?

I think Pynchon has offered a range of flavours of his very special
brand of fiction (or whatever we call what he does), and teh IV
flavour is not the strongest or the most unusual one, but it;s still
very pleasant.


> I also *really* do not like it, though I'm willing to pick through the carcass, looking for shreds of ... ick, I'll drop that metaphor -- not enough caffeine in the system to think it through.  Anyway, I'd place IV solidly at the bottom of any ranking or rating of Pynchon's works [haven't read his Minstrel Island script, admittedly]. I certainly hope nothing else dislodges it from that position.  Is there anyone here who'd disagree?  Speak up!
>
> Laura