Bloom, from 1994, on Pynchon canonically, WTF?

[malignd at aol.com]

I think the word "uncanny" is the tip-off that there is no typo.  Bloom 
suggests that TCL49 feels more to him like the predecessor of Miss 
Lonelyhearts than what is the case, i.e., the opposite.  It's an idea 
lifted from Borges's story Kafka and his Precursors, if I have that 
title correctly.

That he doesn't go into detail makes it, to me, a rhetorical toss-off 
that he'd rather not have to discuss, sort of like a pot insight.  I 
think Bloom has reached the point where he thinks he can make such 
delphic comments because he's Bloom and leave it to the drones to 
figure it out.  I have read both books numerous times and don't know 
what he's talking about except in the sense of figuring out and 
deciding for myself what that might be.


-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Thu, Jan 14, 2010 9:04 am
Subject: Bloom, from 1994, on Pynchon canonically, WTF?


I was recently given a copy of Bloom's "The Western Canon". Thanks to 
bcc hereon. Anyway, and forgive if this has long been posted, commented 
on and reposted, Bloom writes (p. 486): "Pynchon's best work can be 
said to marryS. J. Perelman and Nathaniel West--remember, this is 
before "M & D" and "Against the Day"---but the canonical potential of 
"The Crying of Lot 49" depends more on our uncanny sense that it is 
being imitated by "Miss Lonelyhearts".....???What does he mean here 
since "Miss Lonelyhearts" was written before TCof L49????.....My read 
is that he means that Oedipa is as if she were the character Miss 
Lonelyhearts in that novel searching for her answers? But, quite a 
stretch and he would have said that more clearly.Or, do we have a 
copyediting mistake? (Book is latest edition of the paperback) Should 
read 'is imitating' Miss Lonelyhearts????  But, that would be a major 
strike against its canonization in Bloom's terms.  Or is 'being 
intimated' by "Miss Lonelyhearts" what he means? --he does italicize 
showing he is referring to the work. Bloom does think "Miss 
Lonelyhearts" a classic, but a minor one in the overarching canon, I 
believe.