eGad: forthcoming Pynchon novel (fwd)

[Heikki Raudaskoski]

More gaddis-list praise for Bleeding Edge. Those wishing to avoid
spoilers of any kind may want to skip this one too.


Heikki







---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2013 10:08:25 -0700 (PDT)
From: CA WunderLee <cwunderlee at yahoo.com>
Reply-To: gaddis-l at yahoogroups.com
To: "gaddis-l at yahoogroups.com" <gaddis-l at yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: eGad: forthcoming Pynchon novel

I digested "Bleeding Edge" as well and really think highly of it... parallels to "The Crying of Lot 49", as well as "V" and "Vineland". It follows a fallen PI - Maxine - as she tries to uncover the truth about a carnivorous dot-com company. As Mr. Moore said, it is full of plot twists, zany characters and the pitfalls of clever quest while commenting upon some heavy cultural and social issues. There's some fascinating metaphysical quandaries about virtual space - Maxine's quest takes her into some dark and dangerous places in both 'meat space' and virtual constructs. The failure of technology companies and what they developed parallels the economic and social purgatory of Silicon Alley.

For me, it is why I enjoy Pynchon - like Heller, Nabokov, Joyce, and of course, Gaddis - he understands humor as an intellectual medium. He is capable of absurdity while illuminating unique ideas and finding cultural resonance in details few people see. "Bleeding Edge" shows this off very well (that and it is nice to see he is still writing in a unique style and undeterred by market forces to make every 'serious' writer a realist).

CW




________________________________
  From: Steven Moore <mooresteven at att.net>
To: gaddis-l at yahoogroups.com
Cc: judech at aol.com; Tom McGonigle <tmcgonigle at hotmail.com>; mchale.11 at osu.edu; Stephen Burn <Stephen.burn at glasgow.ac.uk>; joseph tabbi <jtabbi at gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 14, 2013 3:19 AM
Subject: eGad: forthcoming Pynchon novel



 
Since there are some Pynchon fans on this List, I
just finished reading the new novel (bound galley courtesy a former publishing
contact), and it's terrific. Publisher probably doesn't want any rogue reviews
this early in the game, so I'll limit myself to saying that it's like a cross
between Inherent Vice (comic tone) and Lot 49 (another woman
investigating an ever-deepening mystery).
Set in NYC between early 2001
and early '02. (The 9/11 attack is an event, but not the main event.) 479 pages
of vintage Pynchon: insane complications, clever/awful puns, funny
acronyms--e.g. the Wahhabi Transreligious Friendship (WTF)--lots of slang,
shoptalk and technical terms (especially Internet & financial lingo), poetic
imagery, pop-culture references, snappy dialogue, ethnic humor, and of course a
large cast of colorful characters with ... ahm ... distinctive names: on
one page alone we meet Axel Quigley, Phipps Epperdew, and Professor Lavoof,
"generally acknowledged godfather of Disgruntlement Theory and developer of the
influential Disgruntled Employee Simulation Program for Audit Information and
Review, aka DESPAIR" (p. 87). Only a passing reference to ukuleles this time,
but a couple-three Hawaiian shirts and other displays of loud clothing.
As in Vineland, there
are amusing references to imaginary movies, including a snatch of dialogue from
Christopher Walken starring in The Chi Chi Rodriguez Story, along with
dark intimations about "the terminal truth about the U.S. government, worse than
anything you can imagine" (p. 117).
So smart, so funny, so hip, so
plugged in to everything. This is bound to be the novel of the season, despite
some heavy competition (see
http://www.themillions.com/2013/07/most-anticipated-the-great-second-half-2013-book-preview.html,
which through some clerical error or other includes a reference to my
forthcoming book.)