AtD gold: the defense

[Mark Kohut]

Thanks for this, Ms. Gaze. Loved it. 
 
Very reductively, a paradox is what every successful metaphor is. Pynchon's surreal, over-the-top,
overarching, extended and singularly particular metaphors are his "seven types of ambiguity". 
Ambiguity being resonance.
 
I was going to use Donne as an example of the 'metaphysical wit'---yoking together of opposites---
that Eliot praised in him, and that Pynchon believes in too, it seems,  from his practice. (Opposites means
wildly disparate, a fish on a bicycle in that surrealist example or a giant adenoid in London). 
 
And his explication of the Wordsworth poem, showing its banality when articulated straight, is like what 
 I meant by simplified prosaic meaning that, embedded, is still beautiful. I wish I could articulate all the tones and contextual nuances 
as Brooks does here. Maybe when I grow up. 
 
Brooks sez: 
"Mr. Wordsworth . . . was to propose to himself as his object, to give the charm of novelty to things of every day, and to excite a feeling analogous to the supernatural, by awakening the mind's attention from the lethargy of custom, and directing it to the loveliness and the wonder of the world before us..." Wordsworth, in short, was consciously attempting to show his audience that the common was really uncommon, the prosaic was really poetic."
 
I say that the above is also one thing Pynchon tries to do, again, simplistic but often beautiful in Pynchon's sly and lyrical way, 
esp in Mason & Dixon and Against The Day, maybe---but also some clearly thematic scenes in Vineland too.

From: barbie gaze <barbiegaze at gmail.com>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Sent: Monday, February 27, 2012 8:46 PM
Subject: Re: AtD gold: the defense


http://english.illinoisstate.edu/strickland/rsvtxt/brooks3.htm