Critical Thinking

[malignd at aol.com]

Please try to make your tiresome points without putting words in my mouth.  I've never compared him to Hemingway or Updike, of whom I'm not a fan.  I've found Roth a far more vital and important writer over the last two decades, but never suggested that Pynchon write like him.


If you're fine with his tired tricks, fine.  I'm disappointed and think I have good reason to be.


The apparent weaknesses of P are actually preferences of particular
readers. That he uses sophomoric humor, bathroom humor, stupid dog and
duck tricks, nifty names and the like puts him in very goos companu
with the best authors in the language, including, of course
Shakespeare. Now some folks don't like William Shakespeare. they can
not stand his sophomoric puns and is stupid names. Caliban? Nice one
Bill. And, the Hamlet guy needs to grow up; he's at least thirty,
still goes to college, uses sophomoric wit, usually some gross sexual
insult all too much...and....

Nothing wrong with talking horses (Swift) or pigs (Orwell) or
furniture (Dickens) or ghosts (Shakespeare) or silly names or any of
the other tropes P has made wonderful use of.

To suggest that Pynchon write like Hemingway, and there are more
Hemingway copy-catz than Boby Dylan wannabeez, is absurd. Pynchon, as
I said before, ain't P. Roth. Or Updike. He makes them look like good
writers not great creative artists.





-----Original Message-----
From: alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com>
To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wed, Sep 19, 2012 7:31 pm
Subject: Re: Critical Thinking


The apparent weaknesses of P are actually preferences of particular
readers. That he uses sophomoric humor, bathroom humor, stupid dog and
duck tricks, nifty names and the like puts him in very goos companu
with the best authors in the language, including, of course
Shakespeare. Now some folks don't like William Shakespeare. they can
not stand his sophomoric puns and is stupid names. Caliban? Nice one
Bill. And, the Hamlet guy needs to grow up; he's at least thirty,
still goes to college, uses sophomoric wit, usually some gross sexual
insult all too much...and....

Nothing wrong with talking horses (Swift) or pigs (Orwell) or
furniture (Dickens) or ghosts (Shakespeare) or silly names or any of
the other tropes P has made wonderful use of.

To suggest that Pynchon write like Hemingway, and there are more
Hemingway copy-catz than Boby Dylan wannabeez, is absurd. Pynchon, as
I said before, ain't P. Roth. Or Updike. He makes them look like good
writers not great creative artists.

 
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