America, highly caffeinated: Thomas Pynchon's Mason and Dixon

[Phillip Greenlief]

M&D was the last of the works for me to arrive at (just finished my second reading) and yeah, i think - in spots - the most difficult to navigate. 

for me it was the language; being a well-trained joycean, it was no where near as difficult as FW, for example, nor the oxen of the sun episode of U, but there was the illusion that "it's just english", and that made me feel like it should be easier, but it wasn't.

sent from phillip's iPhone

On Jun 20, 2013, at 7:14 AM, Markekohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I'll fess up.....hardest damn one for me to read.....
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
> On Jun 20, 2013, at 9:52 AM, Joe Allonby <joeallonby at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> " I found it pretty easy to read too: it’s dense and Pynchon used a
>> pseudo-18th century kind of syntax, but it’s worth sticking with;
>> after 50 or so pages I barely even noticed anymore."
>> 
>> I was waiting for him to get to this.  I had the same reaction the
>> first time I read M&D. It didn't take long to get used to the language
>> and after a while I stopped noticing it. But as a Pynchonhead, I knew
>> what I was in for. This additional layer of literary whimsy might be
>> off-putting for a reader new to the author whose reputation is already
>> daubed with the difficult brush. I still recommend COL49.
>> 
>> 
>> On Thu, Jun 20, 2013 at 9:37 AM, Monte Davis <montedavis at verizon.net> wrote:
>>> Thanks. Lightweight -- but sweet, and refreshingly free of the "daunting
>>> polymath brainiac TRP" meme, and all to the good if it draws new readers.
>>> 
>>> I'd still vote for CoL49 as "the best way to get into his works," but
>>> perhaps that's only because that was the one that hooked me.
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
>>> Of Dave Monroe
>>> Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2013 9:20 AM
>>> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>>> Subject: America, highly caffeinated: Thomas Pynchon's Mason and Dixon
>>> 
>>> http://extendplay.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/america-highly-caffeinated-thomas
>>> -pynchons-mason-and-dixon/
>>>