current and I think complete V-list

John Bailey sundayjb at gmail.com
Mon May 17 06:11:59 CDT 2010


In order, I vote:
Ellison
Chandler
Chesterton

Because I have 'em to hand and could use a kick up the patootie to
read 'em. They're short, they look good, and they're always there,
which was enough for Benny Profane if I recall correctly.

On my longer list I'd add Melville (and maaaaybe Adams, but only out
of a sense of duty). Melville definitely.

I would vociferously campaign against a groupread of 2666 or Kavalier
and Clay though. This list doesn't come with the healthcare plan to
cover spinal damage from lugging those bricks around, and while
they're both ok they're more like literary airport fiction when
compared to Pynchon.

On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 7:47 PM, alice wellintown
<alicewellintown at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm too young to vote. But I'm rich. If I can bribe someone to put a
> few books on the ballot:
>
> Invisible Man or Three Days Before the Shooting
> Ada or Ardor
> Confidence Man or The Whale
> The Jewish Party: Call it Sleep or  The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
>
>
> On Sun, May 16, 2010 at 11:20 PM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
>> Both parody and homage, I think. You may be a we but I, for one or many ,
>> found little in common with your reading of IV( I believe crap was the
>> operant summary).  Are You going to vote or  just campaign against other
>> people's book choices?  If you wish to cast a vote for a book about business
>> management( The Visible Hand), do so. Perhaps you are onto a subterranean
>> interest that even now is sparking a wildfire of literary curiosity.
>> On May 16, 2010, at 10:11 PM, alice wellintown wrote:
>>
>>> Yes, but P doesn't set out to improve on Chandler or even the Genre,
>>> but writes a parody, that doesn't so much owe so so much to Chandler
>>> as parody his works and the genre. While parody often involves a debt
>>> of sorts, it's not something owed because it is so freely and easily
>>> taken and mocked. Of course what we found so amusing when the reviews
>>> of IV were published is how many mistook the parody for the real
>>> McCoy.  So, Shakespeare improves old and ancient material with his
>>> poetry and his playwrighting skill, but Pynchon doesn't improve
>>> Chandler.
>>>
>>> Again, the only Chandler worthy of a group read is The Visible Hand.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sun, May 16, 2010 at 9:25 PM,  <malignd at aol.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I didn't say Pynchon was dreadful ...  Improving on bad sources stretches
>>>> from Shakespeare to the Godfather movies.  Chandler is really awful.
>>>>
>>>> Too bad that Pynchon's last novel owes so much to Chandler, eh?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
>>>> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>>>> Sent: Sat, May 15, 2010 11:41 pm
>>>> Subject: Re: current and I think complete V-list
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On May 15, 2010, at 8:19 PM, malignd at aol.com wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Chandler's dreadful.  He's embarrassing.  If you want to read a book
>>>>
>>>>> in that vein read The Maltese Falcon.  Hammett writes circles around
>>>>>
>>>>> Chandler.]
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Too bad that Pynchon's last novel owes so much to Chandler, eh?
>>>>
>>>>
>>
>>
>



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