P defends V. ...

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Yikes, just plowed through way too many previously unread e-mails to discover high levels of vituperativeness and threats and encouragements of leave-taking from the group read.

First of all, sorry, Joseph, I pushed the idea of an end-of-summer break because it seemed voices were dwindling and some people had fallen behind and needed catch-up time.  Plus, the last week or so of summer has a tendency to lure people away from their computers in favor of walks on the beach, the dropping off of one's youngest at college (sob!), etc.  We start up on the 6th with Chapter 6.

Second, I hope no one will be driven from the read (or leave of their own volition) by the degenerating tone of what started out as a discussion about P's attitude towards V.  Personally, I tend to agree with Alice/Terrence's preference of V over IV.  On the other hand, during the group read of IV, Robin certainly helped me see it in a better light than I had during my first reading.

I've always seen the SL Intro as an honest self-critique, with some fishing-for-compliments motivation tossed in.  I disagree with P's disparagement of COL49.  I love that book.  My daughter (20) just read it and also loved it.  It's got to be daunting for authors to lose control over their published work, but that's the collateral damage of publishing.  Doris Lessing was incredibly pissed off that readers loved The Golden Notebook for being a feminist tract, something she had had no intention of writing.  I also like V, though there are many parts (specifically the Whole Sick Crew) that I dislike.  I like the audacity (Obama doesn't own that word)of the young author's experiment, even if it partially, or even mostly failed.  Most of those reading the novel when it first came out must have wanted to hear more from this voice.  The dialogue may have been weak, but there are still many fine classic Pynchon passages sprinkled throughout the book.  It's certainly worth an archaeological dig of a group read to find those treasures.  Hope we can all (all of us!) reconvene on September 6th to continue the pursuit.

Laura