chapter 6 is up for grabs.

[Joseph Tracy]

The Whole Sick Crew  and more specifically Benny Profane is, for me  
also, the weakest part of the novel. I find myself more engaged by  
the Stencil/V part, but there is some brilliant writing here and a   
structural approach that is marked by genius and something I am  
hoping to understand better by looking at in this first work where  
maybe some of the skeletal essence is more exposed.

Speaking of the skeleton and just not liking V. I think the funny  
bone is definitely underdeveloped in V.  The funniest parts so far  
are the songs.


On Jun 13, 2010, at 11:44 AM, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:

> The opening scene is kind of off-putting.  Young Pynchon's  
> struggling to find his authorial voice:  Benny the schlemiel/beat  
> generation/Kerouac-like, disconnected drifter - Pynchon's still  
> struggling to leave his Slow Learner mode behind.  He adopts  
> Stencil as a second protagonist in chapter 2 - a more erudite,  
> Henry Adams stand-in, on a Quest to find himself, just as Pynchon  
> is.  The two are synthesized as Slothrop in GR - Schlemiel On a  
> Quest.  The New York Beatnik/Whole Sick Crew scenes are a shtick  
> that was already getting tired.  Pynchon tries this voice on in V.,  
> then discards it wisely, going West to develop his California voice.
>
> Laura
>
> -----Original Message-----
>> From: "grladams at teleport.com" <grladams at teleport.com>
>> Sent: Jun 13, 2010 2:30 AM
>> To: kelber at mindspring.com, pynchon-l at waste.org
>> Subject: chapter 6 is up for grabs.
>>
>> Hey y'all,
>> I can't do it. I just don't like V. I picked it up and tried  
>> reading it
>> and I won't be a host for chapter 6. There are so many other books  
>> I need
>> to read before I can even <be> well rounded enough to even comment on
>> references, you know? I hope there is time to find someone else.  
>> Sorry,
>> -Jill
>>
>> Original Message:
>> -----------------
>> From:  kelber at mindspring.com
>> Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2010 10:43:04 -0400 (EDT)
>> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>> Subject: Re: Down with more prolegomena! Give me a V. .....
>>
>>
>> http://www.thomaspynchon.com/covers/v_cvr.html
>>
>> The Picador edition is the only one that doesn't add the ".".
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
>>> Sent: Jun 11, 2010 7:06 AM
>>> To: Richard Ryan <himself at richardryan.com>
>>> Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>>> Subject: Re: Down with more prolegomena! Give me a V. .....
>>>
>>> Richard Ryan asks:
>>> Interesting but reference please?
>>>
>>> Only in my scholarly dreams do i have everything on file.....I  
>>> believe it
>> was in one of his letters to Cork Smith in the sixties...those  
>> ones his
>> agent sold....
>>>
>>> But "So the letter "V" is in
>>> fact a by its very nature a code for something else, something  
>>> bigger
>>> or other.  The inverted tip of the iceberg."
>>>
>>> Yes, I say whether I've invented p's remark or not....
>>>
>>>
>>> A good Derridean would say the mark (and perhaps the Mark as  
>>> well) was
>>> fundamentally indeterminate.  In any case, the period appears to  
>>> make
>>> the letter an initial, or part of an acronym.  So the letter "V"  
>>> is in
>>> fact a by its very nature a code for something else, something  
>>> bigger
>>> or other.  The inverted tip of the iceberg.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
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