Chabon on BE

Fri Oct 18 16:00:17 CDT 2013

Fair enough. Enjoy Macdonald; I like him better than Hammett and Chandler.

My own New York Cities were 15 years in Manhattan, 15 in DUMBO, 10 more in a
NJ suburb near Newark but still oriented to NYC for most of my work and many
friendships. I think of "world cities" as just that -- big and diverse
enough to contain many worlds - and am wary of assertions that any one is
more the real NYC than another. Certainly Manhattan below 96th St has a more
transient population, and looms disproportionately large because it has such
a concentration  of media and media people (with their own parochialism),
but it seemed pretty real at the time.  

From: rich [mailto:richard.romeo at gmail.com] 
Sent: Friday, October 18, 2013 3:20 PM
To: Monte Davis
Cc: John Bailey; "pynchon-l at waste.org"
Subject: Re: Chabon on BE

solely a personal bias--I just don't find the daily ordinary goings on of
families and children in fiction, dysfunctional or not, all that interesting
or compelling, I like characters on the margins of life

>From what I've read of Chabon, I find his writing competent not
extraordinary. I have a limited life on this planet; I want extraordinary,
Under The Volcano/GR extraordinary 

maybe I've just outgrown the counter-culture mind-set, too. not sure what I
am at the moment. I'm from NYC, not Maxine's NYC, more like Underworld's
Nick Shay's NYC. re-reading Underworld. much of it is extraordinary writing
but that I feel is what I'm after. but I understand its my own bias.

p.s. I just bought a shit load of ross macdonald

rich

On Fri, Oct 18, 2013 at 12:57 PM, Monte Davis <montedavis at verizon.net>
wrote:

Can you be more specific than "bugs me"..? And doesn't "like X would write"
work both ways? Last March I posted some passages from Telegraph Avenue that
nod to Pynchon in both matter and style, adding that Chabon is 

"no less his own writer for being as Pynch-y as can be this time around. Not
lesser, not copy-cat, no ranking or hierarchy asserted or implied. Chabon's
nods to TRP are conscious, smiling, and peer-to-peer assured.  Telegraph
Avenue has crime and consequences skipping down the generations, too, but
that doesn't make it a copy of AtD -- or of Ross Macdonald's California
Oresteias, for that matter." 

After reading Chabon's review of BE I wish I'd said more about Telegraph
Avenue's parents, children, and stories told/withheld between them: very
roughly, in both novels conspiracy theories are to history as children's
apprehensions and misapprehensions are to family. It doesn't bug me that P
and C, born a generation apart, should be working the same parental patch.

From:  <mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org> owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:
<mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org> owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf Of
rich
Sent: Friday, October 18, 2013 11:46 AM
To: Mark Kohut
Cc: John Bailey; Robin Landseadel;  <mailto:pynchon-l at waste.org>
pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: Chabon on BE

just a thought

Has Pynchon written a book much like one Chabon, Lthem, and co. would write.
seems to me to be so. still bugs me

On Thu, Oct 17, 2013 at 8:25 PM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:

Yeah, you are righter on than me.....

----- Original Message -----
From: John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com>
To: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
Cc: Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>; "pynchon-l at waste.org"
<pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2013 7:19 PM
Subject: Re: Chabon on BE

Very nice piece (with spoilers as to the last line, which is very bold!)

The kids are central to BE and he gets that it's not really just about
some idea of innocence or 'family is all' as some reviewers have
lamely suggested is his cop-out.

Pay attention to the scene when the kids get on a plane with Horst and
only one looks back at Maxine. Foreshadowing.

On Fri, Oct 18, 2013 at 10:09 AM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
> so fine...i remember him loving on AtD.
>
> I think we have been exploring P's ironies and self-referential
parodies---again, given away in the trailer---but we
> haven't yet  mentioned the kids......innocence in Pynchon as Chabon
sez......
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Cc:
> Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2013 5:55 PM
> Subject: Re: Chabon on BE
>
> How to Read a Postmodern Novel like a Postmodern Novelist.
>
> On Oct 17, 2013, at 3:52 PM, Fiona Shnapple wrote:
>
>> cool.
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 17, 2013 at 4:54 PM, Charles Albert <cfalbert at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/nov/07/thomas-pynchon-crying-s
eptember-11/?utm_medium=email
<http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/nov/07/thomas-pynchon-crying-
september-11/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=October+17+2013&utm_content=Octo
ber+17+2013+CID_06ff9c37396f9b996a0043559c3f24c2&utm_source=Email%20marketin
g%20software&utm_term=The%20Crying%20of%20September%2011>
&utm_campaign=October+17+2013&utm_content=October+17+2013+CID_06ff9c37396f9b
996a0043559c3f24c2&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=The%20Cr
ying%20of%20September%2011
>>>
>>> Excuse the ungainly url.
>>>
>>> love,
>>> cfa
>> -
>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>
>
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l

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