chapter 6 is up for grabs.

[Robin Landseadel]

On Jun 13, 2010, at 8:52 AM, Mark Kohut wrote:

> Except, maybe, he found his comic, humorous mojo here? What stories  
> of his make one laugh like this?

Others, more.

> To launch such a vision of history, America as ...Comedy (in  
> literary and common parlance) starts the Pynchon we most know.

For me, it started with the overdose of Kirsch.

Laura is striking valid points in the "V. is crap" argument. It's not  
that V. is crap in the sense that T'n'A made of IV, it's more like  
that guy that the older Pynchon doubts he'd want a drink with. What's  
painful in the first chapter is just how un-evolved his voice is, how  
flat the characters are, how he is, so far, deaf and dumb as regards  
tone. Tone and nuance is what the man improves as he grows up.

BTW, what do we call this hot mess? I vote for "V-2" as this is the  
second group read of the group. However, I am a traditional unreliable  
narrator, feel free to admonish and castigate me as you see fit.