aw. Re: Where did ...

[Erik T. Burns]

>Actually, outside of the p-list, I presently only know and am in contact with one  person who admits to reading Pynchon, and only GR.

You guys should try being Gaddis fans....

At least Pynchon has hipster clout.




On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 9:13 PM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net> wrote:
> Matthew
>
> I do find your area of research interesting.
>
> Pynchon does seem to hold a unique kind of position in the American
> consciousness.  Maybe it's a little like the one James Joyce and T. S. Eliot
> held in the thirties.  I feel sure there must have been New Yorker cartoons
> about women coming and going and forging things in the smithy of one's soul.
>
> Actually, outside of the p-list, I presently only know and am in contact
> with one  person who admits to reading Pynchon, and only GR.  He is very
> well read and seems to understand about everything.   I don't know exactly
> what he gets from Pynchon. Perhaps the impossibility of controlling destiny
> through knowledge.  No social prestige issues.
>
> Reading Pynchon for me has become a habit, formed since joining the p-list
> back in '95.  I had read the previous novels as they came out.  Perhaps some
> of my reasons for reading Pynchon were originally sociological (I did
> operate in more intellectual circles back then) , but cultural capital has
> had no negotiable value for me  in decades. I just like good writing.
>
> Keep us posted on your progress.
>
> P
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> On 9/23/2011 1:56 PM, Matthew Cissell wrote:
>
> Paul,
>
>     Then you might find my area of research interesting; don't worry, I
> won't go into it. However, in the future you and other P-listers may be able
> to help answer questions about who reads TP, why he's always short-listed
> for the Nobel and yet few seem to know of him (i hope to show this in my
> research) despite having been on the Simpsons, and other mind bending
> Pynchon puzzles.
>     About the question of status ascension (or acquiring cultural capital),
> I submit two bits from THe Onion (humor often unveils what otherwise would
> remain covered). "Pretentious Congressman to be Sworn in Using Thomas
> Pynchon Novel" 05.28.07. And, "Man Reading Pynchon on Bus Takes Pains to
> Make Cover Visible" Dec 20, 2000. Would this be funny if we substituted the
> name for some other Nobel short lister? Or a canonic author (eg James
> Joyce)?
>     I look forward to talking more to you about this.
>
> Ciao
> MCC
> From: Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net>
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Sent: Friday, September 23, 2011 6:07 PM
> Subject: Re: aw. Re: Where did ...
>
> On 9/23/2011 6:27 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen wrote:
>
> Matthew,
>
> Wasn't it me who asked about your Bourdieu approach to Pynchon here when all
> the other people
> did not even give a damn?
>
> Personally  I'm certainly among the very few P-lister who have neither
> anything against French theory nor against the sociology of literature.
>
> So I do not quite get why you behave like you do. Is it because I'm not 100%
> in agreement with you
> on each and every detail? If so, I suggest you join a list of parrots.
>
> I also think that my contribution on Mann's sources for "Doktor Faustus"
> could be helpful
> (if you already knew about Mann's lifelong work on Nietzsche or his
> collaboration with Adorno, this wasn't recognizable from your mail, and then
> it's not a private letter exchange between you and me).
>
> You read a lot of Bourdieu, but you're not a learned sociologist; this makes
> it difficult for you to see certain problems in Bourdieu's approach,
> especially the oversimplified concept of agency.
>
> Let me, nevertheless, say that I think your research project sounds
> promising. Always thought that 'literary field'  is a key term for the
> sociology of literature.
>
> Just out of curiosity: Was there anybody else on this list who discussed
> with you sociology of literature in general and Bourdieu in particular?
>
> Perhaps you think it over for a while and then try again ;-)
>
>
> Not to necessarily claim precedence but I have long held that Bourdieu is
> the guy to go to when it comes to understanding why so few read Pynchon.
>
> No matter how assiduously one reads the long, erudite, many-times-obscure,
> works, it does not seem to increase one's status in society one iota.
>
> :-)
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> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY-yMPd4LYc
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> On 22.09.2011 23:22, Matthew Cissell wrote:
>
> Und der Haifisch, der hat Zähne/ Und die trägt er im Gesicht.
>
> Typisch, Kai. Sehr typisch.
> Shark, Shark!   (Yawn.)
> Please continue.
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