Misc.Appetizer, to invigorate posters into reacting, kinda like chum....

[Erik T. Burns]

i'm not sure which that is you're referring to. i basically consider
Updike to be a handful of great novels (the Rabbit books, to be sure)
and a lot of, er, "late" stuff which is indistinguishable from each
other. some fun divagations (Witches of Eastwick, for example, or
Memories of the Ford Administration, even The Coup) but plenty of
missable books.

On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 12:00 AM, Tom Beshear <tbeshear at insightbb.com> wrote:
> I dunno. Wallace is perhaps a bit harsh, but that late Updike novel is a,
> urm, bad novel.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Mark Kohut
> To: Richard Ryan
> Cc: pynchon -l
> Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2011 5:35 PM
> Subject: Re: Misc.Appetizer, to invigorate posters into reacting, kinda like
> chum....
> yeah,,,,,that might be my first enemy-making charge: his fiction is
> sometimes nicely embroidered non-fiction
> and stand-up comic set pieces..........
>
> Except that I think his famous essay on a late Updike novel, reprinted
> often, is ...........simply wrong.
>
> And, he is more like Updike, sea-changed, than he ever would admit...
>
> "Yu think I diss Updike, you shoudda heard Wallace"----Franzen on book
> tour..........
> From: Richard Ryan <himself at richardryan.com>
> To: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
> Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2011 2:23 PM
> Subject: Re: Misc.Appetizer, to invigorate posters into reacting, kinda like
> chum....
>
> Haven't tried DFW's fiction yet. His essays are quite wonderful.  I've been
> avoiding the fiction out of fear that the numerous dissenters are right, but
> ultimately one must decide for oneself, no?
>
> On Wed, Jul 20, 2011 at 12:34 PM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> before I start posting on TR, Pt2, C2.....
>
> Have been reading Infinite Jest.  He ain't no Pynchon.
>
> And I'd rather reread Gaddis; infinitely deeper (and depth matters) ; and
> read many other less proclaimed writers.
>
> I mean.....some set pieces of non-infinite pleasure and insight.....into
> depression, say,
> (but done better by Styron).......and a few other things....................
>
> Refute me flamingly.............
> .
>
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>
> --
> Richard Ryan
> New York and the World
> ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
> "The reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround him. The
> unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself. All progress
> depends on the unreasonable man." - Shaw
>
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