Franzen, Pynchon, Politik

[David Morris]

Agreed, I think...
One can portray politics without being political.  When an author
starts propagandizing, that's when art dies.

Bertolt Brecht specifically comes to mind in this regard.  His "The
Good Woman of Setzuan" is a great play because it portrays a situation
with political implications, but never crosses that line, even though
he was personally a deeply committed Marxist.

David Morris

On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 7:07 PM, alice wellintown
<alicewellintown at gmail.com> wrote:
> I am reminded of Tony Tanner's brief yet beautiful essay on Emerson, "Lustres and Condiments: Ralph Waldo Emerson in his Essays" because I suspect that Pynchon, a writer and not a politician, not even a lecturer, nor even an essayist of merit, views his craft as relish not corn, as art, not political pornography.