AtD... is it just me?

[Antonin Scriabin]

I thought the characters in *Against the Day* were much more real, and
emotionally engaging, than those in some of Pynchon's other works.  The
Traverse guys, Lake, Cyprian ... I was much more involved with them as
characters than Slothrop, Profane, et al.  I even learned to love the
Chums.  Perhaps it was because we got to see a pretty big chunk of their
lives and relationships, some deaths, travels, etc.  In *AtD *we get to see
characters live out their lives over hundreds of pages, something absent in
a lot of Pynchon's other works.  I feel like Pynchon made a big leap re:
the emotional depth of his characters with *Against the Day* and *Mason &
Dixon*, which is part of the reason why they are my two favorites of his.


On Thu, Sep 19, 2013 at 2:58 PM, Lemuel Underwing <luunderwing at gmail.com>wrote:

> It's like *Gravity's Rainbow* if it was set at the turn-of-the-century,
> analogous themes, the same procession of characters whose only purpose is
> to be made an Example of by the Omniscient and merciless P.
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 19, 2013 at 1:54 PM, Lemuel Underwing <luunderwing at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> None of the characters seemed "real" in the way that, say Charles & Jere'
>> or Oedipa did... it just seems like a vast procession of set-pieces,
>> beautiful to imagine but hard to *get into*...
>> it left me feeling a little aggravated, because it's an awesome book, I
>> really enjoyed reading it, but it seems like he took a step backwards from
>> M&D.
>>
>
>
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