Wheat, chaff, stalks, seeds

[David Morris]

One thing that struck me about IV, after I'd finished it, was its lack
of gravitas, or horror.  The only exception to this is his occasional
description of an increasingly dark landscape.  But none of the
characters are truly tragic, at least not for more than a few minutes.
 Puck's character becomes darkest at the very end, along side his boss
Adrian Prussia, but their tables are easily turned, cartoon-style.
That said, I didn't dislike IV.  I sort of enjoyed the breezy attitude
that flows through the book.

David Morris

On Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 6:19 AM, John Carvill <johncarvill at gmail.com> wrote:
> You *really* do not like IV, Rich, eh?
>
> I think you underestimate the importance of the book, at least to an
> extent. To me, it seems a very nicely balanced blend of elements
> which, on their own, are worthy, eg. the noir pastiche, etc. But, as
> ever with Pynchon, something the book shares with GR, ATD, etc., is
> that it all adds up to a lot more than the sum of those parts.
>
> For what it's worth, I gave IV as a 40th birthday present to a guy who
> I've unsucessfully tried to get reading Pynchon several times before,
> and he just told me the other day how much he's enjoying it.
> Ironically, one of the first things he had to say about the book was,
> "It's got some great characters in it..."
>
> Hey, how was he supposed to know that Pynchon books don't have
> 'characters' in 'em?
>
> It's possible to smother pretty much anything - yes, even a Pynchon
> novel - in a huge blanket of over-expectation. You (and all of us
> here) are approaching IV as a bit Pynchon 'fan', with all sorts of
> preconceptions. Plus, be fair, you were in a bad mood when the book
> was published anyway. Maybe you'll reconsider the book somewhere down
> the line?