Re: IVIV: chapter seven—Eel Trovatore

[Mark Kohut]

I have a belated question: Do such minor scenes, simple exchanges with waitresses, bartenders, others-----like Marlowe flirting with the bookshop
clerk in The Big Sleep--the book, not the terrif movie scene----come off so much better than this one in IV?  

Just on the surface, I'm not claiming depth bomb resonances.(Although I like the polluted fish resonances.)

And I used to like Iron Butterfly back in the day, but I have a tin ear and my wife might have thrown them out on me had she split.............
Think TRP hates Iron Butterfly?...




--- On Wed, 9/23/09, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: IVIV: chapter seven—Eel Trovatore
> To: "rich" <richard.romeo at gmail.com>
> Cc: malignd at aol.com, pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Wednesday, September 23, 2009, 2:22 PM
> I don't know if there's any depth
> because I'm barely 1/3 through it.
> But I know Pynchon, and he rarely serves up only
> surface.  Vineland
> irked me because its surface made little sense at all its
> crucial
> junctures, and I suspect thats' because it was an complex
> allegory for
> some morality construct, and the storey was the dog's tale
> (get it?).
> The storey was just a flawed delivery system.
> 
> IV hasn't come close tp blowing me away yet, but it holds
> together in
> tone and story so far.  When I say it's "sloppy," I
> mean its feel, its
> diction.  It's pure California beach slang with lots
> of jokeyness
> thrown in.  That doesn't feel like bad writing to me,
> just an
> attitude.
> 
> Whether the waitress is acidic or snappy, real or not, she
> is cartoon,
> and not exactly meant to be examined too closely. 
> This is why I think
> this IVIV tends toward silliness sometimes.  Too much
> deep diving
> prematurely.
> 
> David Morris
> 
> On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 9:58 AM, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > purposefully sloppy--how does one prove that?
> > if u don't know if there is any depth how can u say
> its hidden
> > Pynchon I  believe wrote a pretty straightforward
> novel for good or ill
> > Nixon Atlantis Ho Lemuria--profound its not
> >
> > rich
> >
> > On 9/23/09, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >> I think these criticisms are snarky at best.
>  They're all attacking
> >> what is IV's attitude/voice which is supposed to
> be laid-back
> >> stoner-LA.  It's purposefully sloppy diction.  I
> don't think it's bad
> >> writing.  It IS cartoonish, purposefully so.  If
> there is any depth
> >> going on here (and I don't know that there is),
> it's hidden
> >> underneath.
> 
>