BE/White Noise

[Monte Davis]

I still find myself thinking sometimes that it was impossible for Pynchon to
finish. As wonderful as the final theater image and "Now everybody --" are,
I sympathize with anyone put off by the decoherence beginning  with "The
Low-Frequency Listener" (p. 681, Viking Penguin).

Yes, I get "Slothrop" dissolving frame-by-frame into the rainbow and the
world. Yes, I can trace many of the threads that stretch from 1945 to 1973.
Yes, I understand P is throwing down a gauntlet to  history and story and
narrative; that's our pushbutton apocalypse, foax. But I'm still disoriented
for much of the last eighty pages, and have never been satisfied -- maybe
just sour grapes -- with anyone else's guideposts.

Is white noise the signal that we must be silent? Was there another way to
end 'A Day in the Life' than its fading thunderous chord, or 'I Am the
Walrus' than its fading tumult? Could Joyce have leaped straight into the
Waking dream instead of Molly's sleepy soliloquy? Damned if I know; the Word
beyond words isn't talking. 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
Of John Bailey
Sent: Friday, October 11, 2013 12:53 AM
To: David Morris
Cc: Robin Landseadel; pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: BE/White Noise

I believe it was for several, what, millions who helped give it a reputation
as an impossible-to-finish book. 

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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l