Fw: Re: V-2nd - Chapter 14

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Sure, the Bright Young Pynchon's trying to impress us with Things He Knows.  And he hasn't shaken off the smell of stale frat-house beer or coffee-drenched Final Exam Week all-nighters.  As a naive college kid, I was thrilled by the breadth of V.  Approaching it for the first time as an oldster, I'm sure I would have been less impressed.

But it's interesting that he's developing here the techniques and tones he used with such great impact in Gravity's Rainbow.  Was it just that he Knew More when he wrote GR?  His world-view had become more solidified and mature (and more drug-inspired), to the point where he knew that mere name-dropping and obscure cultural references weren't adequate.  I'd sum it up by saying he moved away from his Baedeker's mentality.  But the Baedeker's viewpoint was a lot of fun for what it was, in V.  

Laura


-----Forwarded Message-----
>From: Richard Ryan <himself at richardryan.com>
>Sent: Feb 2, 2011 11:40 PM
>To: kelber at mindspring.com
>Subject: Re: V-2nd - Chapter 14

>
>The Rite of Spring connection is another one of P's elbow-throwing
>wink-wink references.  Yes, we get it, but is there anything to be
>interested in here?  For me the single most evocative aspect of the
>chapter is the description of the Parisian weather and Melanie's
>costumes, counterbalanced with P's grandiose pontificating on Love and
>Death.  It's the usual weird TRP mixture of deliberately annoying
>tongue clicks in counterpoint with an undulating base line of booming
>farts.