Pynchon and Roth

[malignd at aol.com]

Utilitarian?  It may not be self-consciously poetic but it's masterful.  It has tremendous rhythm and drive and propulsive energy.  It never sags, not for a sentence.  He locks me in quicker than any writer I can name.





-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net>
To: Kai Frederik Lorentzen <lorentzen at hotmail.de>; pynchon-l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wed, May 11, 2011 5:08 am
Subject: Re: Pynchon and Roth


                  
    
    Yes, with Roth the language is simple and straightforward.  You    never have to consciously pause and ask yourself why did he chose    that particular word or image.   The  language is utilitarian, a    means to an end. It's what the words relate that is important. With    Pynchon language is all.  The genius is not is what he says, which    often can't quite be parsed,  but how he says it.
    
    P
    
    
    On 5/11/2011 6:45 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen wrote:    
                  
      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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