Sot-Weed

[Krafft, John M.]

I should probably stay out of this: why dis other peple's idea of fun? But ...

Way back when I was just getting into Pynchon, the big guys claimed Barth was the real thing, an intellectual('s) novelist, unlike Pynchon. I found Barth intriguing, challenging, often funny, but often smug and tedious. (Can anybody read Goat-Boy these days? Maybe: I admit I haven't since 1973 and don't intend to.) When M&D came out, several reviewers complained that we didn't need Pynchon's go at something Barth had done better a generation earlier. So I reread (even taught!) Sot-Weed, and was ... disappointed. How could I ever have found all those fart jokes and rape jokes amusing? I still occasionally think about possibly doing something with Letters someday, but maybe it won't reread well either.

John