The Marraige of Maule & Pyncheon (Pynchon's mesmeric process)

[Dave Williams]

I like Wood; I think he is the best young hot shot critic around. I pick on him not because I think anyone who criticizes P must be misreading him, but because his criticisms are so ignorant of American Fiction. In his fabulous book, _How Fiction Works_, Wood proves that he is head and shoulders above the maddening crowd of young hot shots. The little book is a masterpiece. But I like the old, kranky and crotchety William Howard Gass's -finding a form_ even more. Two essays worth reading are (we mentioned this one a while back---))))((((, "the vicissitudes of the avant garde" and "the baby of the Botticelli."




--- On Sat, 9/4/10, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: The Marraige of Maule & Pyncheon (Pynchon's mesmeric process)
> To: "Dave Williams" <daveuwilliams at yahoo.com>
> Cc: "pynchon -l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Date: Saturday, September 4, 2010, 4:16 PM
> Once again, re Wood on Pynchon:
> 
> His "politics" are simply, NOT, 'explicit"..as Wood might
> have come to realize 
> in his review of Against the Day. 
> 
> (Which he sez is NOT Moby Dick-like [no whale])
> 
> Second: he has simply not read Pynchon (deeply) enough if
> he thinks his 
> ambiguous [see Empson] referents
> point nowhere like a severed arm.....
> 
> The real world is nodded at everywhere in Pynchon.