Wheat, chaff, stalks, seeds

[Monte Davis]

Robin Landseadel sez:

>... I'm pretty sure the "WTF" moments in IV are there to piss 
> off the lit-crit crowd

I'm pretty sure from my own readings, strongly reinforced by the preface to
_Slow Learner_, that after _V._ he was self-confident enough for a
take-it-or-leave-it indifference: neither pandering to any audience
demographic nor making an effort to piss any off, any more than does
Nabokov, Joyce, Flaubert, or Smollett.

I bridle a bit at "lit-crit crowd," which is language I associate with the
boringly predictable hissy fits in SF and other genre forums. Someone says
"but X's writing is so lame," and someone else is sure to jump in (wearing a
chip on his shoulder that's been there ever since he hated _The Scarlet
Letter_ in 10th grade) to speak for the Real People who value a Ripping Good
Yarn, unlike that effete lit-crit crowd with its pretense of pleasure at
artsy-fartsy arcana. (For that matter, it's also like some of Nabokov's
shots from the hip at Freud and Freudian readings.) 

GMAFB. To read *anything* as closely and explore it as minutely as the
regulars on this listserv IS to be engaged in literary criticism. Period.

-Monte