the Merle center

[Paul Mackin]

On 2/29/2012 6:55 AM, Heikki Raudaskoski wrote:
>
> On Tue, 28 Feb 2012, barbie gaze wrote:
>
>> The reality and fictionality of characters is an essential concern of all
>> Pynchon works. I'm a bit surprized to read that P-List readers of Pynchon's
>> works find fault with the massive AGtD on the grounds that it has no
>> central character or consciousness or whatever. Pynchon has, as Paul noted,
>> improved his writing over the years; he is a better writer in AGtD than in
>> GR or M&D  (I won't include V. because it is his first novel and he is not
>> yet a mature and great writer early on, and I'll skip over the California
>> series because these are not serious efforts), but he has alos improved his
>> story-telling and his characterizations.
>
>
> Hmm, perhaps the basic reason why AtD doesn't work for me is that I find
> it lackadaisical. It's as if it tries to actualize "weak interaction" or
> some such in both its story-telling and characterizations, and it may well
> succeed in that. I, nostalgic, miss GR's intersubjective magnetisms and
> gravities. And besides gravity, GR has gravity-fighting lightness that in
> my view is not to be confused with AtD's overall feebleness. These
> qualities I see in GR also make its narrative and characterizations work
> for me much better than those of AtD. But maybe I really should reread AtD.
>
>
> Heikki
>
"Feebleness" might to a good way to describe AtD's connection to the 
reader. It just doesn't satisfy some of us in ways we would like.

Some pass off a complaint like this as demonstrating a lack of 
understanding as to what fiction currently aspires to. For example, to 
the objection that the ending of AtD doesn't resolve anything, the 
answer given might be that perhaps that's very the point.

To my way of thinking that isn't very reader-friendly. The reader may 
not be primarily interested is what the point is. (He probably already 
knows). If he's like me anyway, he wants to know the end of the story. 
An ending that satisfies. (like a good cigar)

I don't know if Jonathan Franzen had the above in mind a year or so ago 
when he formulated his first commandment for writers. It was that the 
reader is your friend.

I hope the trend in high end literary writing is in that direction.

P