Was Augie March thread, misc.

[Bekah]

Has anyone other than myself read Augie March?   I really enjoy  
Bellow's style but his "message" in Augie March is more or less along  
the lines of "local boy can't seem to get it together and stays  
lost."   (And this was one of his more "leftist" ideas.)   So I can  
see Pynchon enjoying Bellow but not the reverse - quite easily (heh).

Bekah



On Mar 28, 2010, at 3:01 PM, malignd at aol.com wrote:

> I wonder whether TRP liked Bellow's work better than Bellow liked his,
>
> Also in Slow Learner, Pynchon explains, "At the simplest level, it  
> had to do with language. We were encouraged from many directions-- 
> Kerouac and the Beat writers, the diction of Saul Bellow in The  
> Adventures of Augie March, emerging voices like those of Herbert  
> Gold and Philip Roth--to see how at least two very distinct kinds of  
> English could be allowed in fiction to coexist. Allowed! It was  
> actually OK to write like this! Who knew? The effect was exciting,  
> liberating, strongly positive."
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
> To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Sun, Mar 28, 2010 5:48 pm
> Subject: Re: Was Augie March thread, misc.
>
>
> I just watched, again, Todd Haynes' interpretation of Dylan---early  
> life at least---the movie"I'm Not There".....and in it there is a  
> scene in which Dylan leaves a limo after being "interviewed"by an   
> ultrasmug hit man of a journalist---the guy said to be the  
> inspiration for Mr. Jones inthat song, I believe---and, as Dylan  
> leaves, upset--being played by the Blanchett character here---he  
> says: "I knowall I need to know about you, you don't know anything  
> about me"......!!An artist to journalist archetype? An artist v.  
> world urban legend?....Couldn't believe my ears.... ----- Original  
> Message ----From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org 
> >Sent: Sat, March 27, 2010 1:43:46 PMSubject: Was Augie March  
> thread, misc.I wonder whether TRP liked Bellow's work better than  
> Bellow liked his, as SB's reaction to it hasbeen brought up on the  
> plist, I believe. I bet he did: P's reading seems very large- 
> hearted, snubbing nothing pre-emptively and maybe liking little but  
> trivial, mediocre books, which he probably has long avoided.Here's a  
> P tangent involving one of P's first great 'getters', Tony Tanner.  
> Tanner's penetrating of P's meanings, style and early achievement--  
> without a net, as it were, is very commendable, as has been said (by  
> Rich, at least, I think). Anyway, I heard a story which I later did  
> find in print---which means, if it is not true, it is now  
> institutionalized as truth!----about Saul and Tony being at the same  
> literary party (In London, I think). Tanner had written on Saul B's  
> work aswell, of course. Someone at the party asked Tanner if he had  
> ever met Saul and he said No. The person decidedto introduce them.  
> He took Tony over to Saul, who when he learned who he was snubbed  
> him with a line like this:"I know everything I need to know about  
> him; he knows nothing about me."...Ah, the literary life...
>