Another Negative BE Review

[David Morris]

Riffing is fine as a condiment, not for the main course.

On Sunday, November 3, 2013, Thomas Eckhardt wrote:

> Am 03.11.2013 15:24, schrieb David Morris:
>
>  http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/bonfire-of-the-inanities/
>>
>
>  (...) you’re waiting for
>> Thomas Pynchon’s magic to show up.
>>
>> It never does. What shows up instead, on page after interminable page,
>> is yet more tired riffing. Only where such riffing in /Inherent Vice/,
>> with its neon California-noir setting, was merely irritating, in
>> /Bleeding Edge/ it’s deeply offensive, because the book’s setting is our
>> own immediate past and centers on the terrorist bombings of September
>> 11, 2001 – a national trauma about which only crackpots and lunatics
>> have the bad grace to riff. [...]
>>
>
> Me, I enjoyed the riffing immensely. Several native speakers did as well,
> judging from the reviews and the reactions on the list, so my not being
> fully immersed in the language/culture does not seem to be the main reason.
> But this may be a matter of taste. As for the September 11 background, the
> reviewer seems to imply that you are a crackpot or lunatic if you allow
> yourself to have thoughts about 9/11 that are not in line with the official
> version. This is obviously not what Pynchon thinks. As the reviewer says
> and objects to, he lets some of his characters riff on the context and the
> background of the attacks (before and after they occur in the novel). These
> characters' views are not depicted as crazy or lunatic but have some
> legitimacy (one's mileage may vary there) attributed to them. Whatever one
> may think of this, it is there. And it is certainly nothing new for Pynchon.
>
> I note that what one thinks about 9/11 is in many cases critical for how
> one judges BE.
>
>  Instead of such divine intervention, the first half of /Bleeding
>> Edge/ is full of /shtick/. Almost every character is a jokester ready
>> with several grade-A zingers (you’ll never meet busboys and bike
>> messengers this funny in real life). [...]
>>
>
> This seems to me to be missing the point completely (though the reviewer
> here seems to inadvertently admit that the riffing in fact IS funny; his
> beef is with funny dialogue, silliness and 9/11 all in the same book, I
> guess). If I want to know about real life busboys and bike messengers I
> read one of the numerous pseudo-realist novels that are published every
> month, not Pynchon. Or I just leave the house.
>
> And this guy liked 'Gravity's Rainbow'? No 'riffing' on deadly serious
> issues in GR, I guess...
>
> Thomas
>
>
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