Franzen and Pynchon

[Joseph Tracy]

I agree with SU that the article in Harpers' was tedious. I wasn't recommending it for quality but potential relevant interest. I do understand  and even respect the craftsmanship that has made Franzen popular. 
I  also agree that for a reader who enjoys Pynchon, Franzen is not in the same league. And this article reveals an obsession with status and approval that may be undermining his potential. I'm fairly sure that his work would have been more impressive to me if he had not made his break with those described as postmodernists so public. 
He is a clever writer, even a gifted writer, but the work fades from memory as too properly balanced. Engaging in the reading, it doesn't hold an edge. That is my own experience. 
On Aug 18, 2013, at 11:03 AM, Tom Beshear wrote:

> Franzen retreated into social realism, with welcome touches of the comic. He does what he does but it's not on a level with P. or DFW or WTV -- Europe Central is a masterpiece and I hope he lives to finish the Seven Dreams.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: eburns at gmail.com
> To: rich ; owner-pynchon-l at waste.org ; Lemuel Underwing
> Cc: Joseph Tracy ; P-list List
> Sent: Sunday, August 18, 2013 6:43 AM
> Subject: Re: Franzen and Pynchon
> 
> A-and Franzen has to know he's not even playing in the same league! It's hard to imagine any American writer not being "influenced" and/or in awe of Pynchon and Gaddis, but of course the challenge is to move beyond, through...not get stuck in.
> 
> There are some examples: Vollman springs to mind (his "You Bright and Risen Angels" was certainly influenced by TRP, but he has gone off on a frolic of his own (with mixed, but always fascinating) results. Foster Wallace is another example. There are many others.
> Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
> From: rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com>
> Sender: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Sat, 17 Aug 2013 20:16:00 -0400
> To: Lemuel Underwing<luunderwing at gmail.com>
> Cc: Joseph Tracy<brook7 at sover.net>; P-list List<pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Subject: Re: Franzen and Pynchon
> 
> Malcolm Lowry was practically driven to despair by as he saw it the onerous influence of past masters. Figured Franzen got it out of his system with his excoriation of William Gaddis in the New Yorker. Guess Franzen hasn't
> 
> 
> On Sat, Aug 17, 2013 at 7:37 PM, Lemuel Underwing <luunderwing at gmail.com> wrote:
> I have a subscription and ran out to the mailbox after reading your post, Joseph. 
> My goodness was that article unbearable.... Franzen never casts off Pynchon, and is effectively subsumed by him along with others, I don't know how he got so popular except as perhaps a "Fad"...
> 
> That said I still enjoy Harpers, if only because I currently cannot afford a sub. to Lapham's Quarterly...
> 
> 
> On Sat, Aug 17, 2013 at 9:32 AM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
> There is an article in the new Harper's(sept 2013) by J Franzen  titled A Different Kind of Father in which he reviews the role of Pynchon as a literary "father" he later rejected.
> 
> The issue also has a good article by  William Vollman on his experience  with the FBI  and Border Agents along with FOIA research into his FBI files. For no discernible reason he was a suspect in the unabomber case. Not quite Slothrop but Kafkaesque with a side of Marx brothers.
> 
> 
>