IV

[Rev'd Seventy-Six]

I missed the round/flat discussion (though I'd very much like to read it)
but I -think- I hear what you mean?

A number of my fave authors--  what my girlfriend calls 'messy' writers,
Kathy Acker, WSB, P.  --have a flattish affect if one hasn't read & re-read
them & unlocked one's own inflection to voices, scenes, etc.  For example,
the Kenosha hallucinations in GR were very 2D until my fourth reading, same
way reading someone else's dream record may feel flat because one has
little-to-no relation to the material.  In the wake of 'unlocking' GR's
narrative voices for myself & hearing the material my own way, I was
surprised & offput all over again by Zak Smith's renderings, by how
cartoonish they were compared to my own reading.  I think those parts of
Smith's GR project which're cartooniest are the bits he hears as flat.

Or am I getting what you're saying all pretzled up?  Because round/flat
seems to me like like an analogue for a projection medium: if a reader
projects onto a 'flat' piece of writing the're liable to get a less
distorted picture than with, say, a rounder (more 3D, more meticulously
chronicled, maybe even overwritten) scenario?  Like Burroughs, Pynchon has
a tendency to produce bit characters who're pretty picaresque, lacking all
nuance.  I find there are plenty of people in the world like that, too.  2D
but useful for a punchline or two.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20130516/df5fc064/attachment.html>