Close Third & Why Channeling his inner Jewish Mother Works so well

[Fiona Shnapple]

New or Old Comedy is useful here:
So, New Comedy:  new comedy, features no chorus. All the characters
are fictional average people, and the play has no heroic or
supernatural overtones. The conflict is centered around family drama
and miscommunication.

But with P, we sit down to watch Jerry Senfeld only to discover half
way in that we're not in Springfield (on the Simpsons couch) anymore.

Irony and parody can cause BIG trouble.

And this trouble is not new to drama or to fiction. It's been around
since the Old & New Greek Drama.

Audiences have been walking out of theaters confused for a long time.


It helps if we are warned.


Does P give us adaquate warning?

Yes.

Follow the good old advice of _How to Read Novels Like a College
Professor and/or do what Nabokov tells his students to do in his
famous essay about good readers and re-read the first chapter.

I'm not saying the irony will be easy to decipher, but at least we can
begin to read the book on its terms.

Readers don't like the book. Why not? Is it the style? Yes, I ber that
is part of it, so, like, um, what is it about the style you hate,
exactly?

Once you can name this, you have a chance at reading the irony P has intended.

Look for the grotesque disparity beteeen words and actions between
words and words between how the text means and what it is saying.

OK, sorry, I'm not a professor but I do play a dentist on Youtube.
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l