TRP's 20 worst sentences

[Otto]

I never saw "the confusion in the wording of those sentences" and I
never agreed to the claim that those sentences are "dreadful" or
"awkward". That were just pretenses I never bought, and it was my
opinion back then and is now that the part is nearly perfect to
express what it expresses.

btw the difference between "Check the archives for the explanation"
and "and you know that" seems not that big to me. You've brought the
text up again and you say that it's bad writing but you refuse to tell
us why.

2009/9/20 Keith <keithsz at mac.com>:
> The confusion in the wording of those sentences was indeed discussed in
> typical obsessive P-list fashion. I have no problem at all with the point I
> think TRP was making in that section. It matches my biases precisely. But
> the awkwardness and confusion of the wording of those sentences is actually
> quite typical of Pynchon's non-fiction writing. Most of us agree with him,
> and know what he is trying to say, so we lose our critical perspective on
> how awkwardly he writes in these instances. It has nothing to do with using
> verbs wrongly. A visit to the archives will illustrate the matter just fine.
> Perhaps I should not be surprised that you resort to "and you know that" in
> your argument, but I am. Good Lord.
>
> On Sep 19, 2009, at 9:21 PM, Otto wrote:
>
> That's not true, Keith, and you know that.
>
> We've discussed the "content", the "politics" in those four sentences,
> but never the grammar. I can't find verbs used wrongly.
>
>
>