Pynchon and Roth

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

On 08.05.2011 16:49, Paul Mackin wrote:

> I like Philip Roth.  He's funny, which is pleasurable, and there is 
> constant struggle with social forces, his family, his women, etc.

The good thing about Philip Roth for the non-native speaker/reader is, 
that the books are written in an easy way. Sure, there is 'frames in 
frames' and other pomo sophistication. But on the level of vocabulary 
and sentence-construction you always catch it right away. That's 
different with Pynchon's books, which also have a wider spectrum of 
leitmotifs. Philip Roth is always primarily writing about Philip Roth. 
Actually I haven't read him lately, but I remember "The Counterlife" and 
"Operation Shylock" very well. Both part of my personal canon. Perhaps 
this is because these books leave the relatively small social life-world 
of the upper intellectual middle class of New Jersey. There's more of 
the not so "funny" world in it, but it's still that "pleasurable" 
straightforward style. And Roth is writing excellent dialogue. Better 
than Pynchon, no doubt. But Pynchon, who has no talent for clarity, is 
imo the far more poetic prose-writer. Pynchon can evoke goose-flesh and 
hyperventilation. He's channeling the Orphic stream ...

KFL

PS: Of course this doesn't mean that Tom can't be funny -- "'And 
considered subjectively,' added Dr. V. Ganesh Rao of the Calcutta 
University, 'as an act of becoming longer or shorter, while at the same 
time turning, among axis whose unit vector is not familiar and 
comforting 'one' but the altogether disquieting /square root minus one/. 
If /you/ were a vector, mademoiselle, you would begin in the 'real' 
world, change your length, enter an 'imaginary' reference system, rotate 
up to three different ways, and return to 'reality' a new person. Or 
vector.'/'Fascinating. But ... human beings aren't vectors. Are 
they?'/'Arguable, young lady. As a matter of fact, in India, the 
Quaternions are now the basis of a modern school of Yoga, a discipline 
which has always relied on such operations as stretching and turning. 
Here in the traditional 'Triangle Asana', for example' --- he stood and 
demonstrated --- 'the geometry is fairly straightforward. But soon one 
moves on to more advanced forms, into the complex spaces of the 
Quaternions ...' He shifted a few dishes, climbed on the table, 
announced 'The Quadrantal Versor Asana,' and commenced a routine which 
quickly became more contortionistic and now and then you'd say 
contrary-to-fact, drawing the attention of other diners and eventually 
the maître d', who came running over waving a vehement finger and was 
two steps away from the table when Dr. Rao abruptly vanished" (Against 
the Day, p. 539). Oh Logik des Verschwindens!

>
>
> I'm not sure sure I wouldn't quite enjoy a books full of Blicero.  He 
> was a pretty marvelous creation.
>
> P
>

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