P defends V. ...

[Joseph Tracy]

Sorry myself . I just kind of lost track of what was happening and  
was expecting more on the next chapter. These are , in fact odd and  
busy days of transition, and a break makes sense.
On Aug 30, 2010, at 10:31 AM, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:

> 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