Bleeding Edge - A Rolling Assessment

[Antonin Scriabin]

I thought there were structural problems, or at least irksome shortcuts.
For example, there were far too many info-dumps via lunch-date.  I should
have kept count of the number of times people meet for lunch, get trapped
at lunch, are forcibly placed at lunch, etc.  It seemed like a very
artificial way to transmit information to the reader and move everything
forward, plot-wise.  I know that, yeah, in NYC people meet for lunch all
the freaking time, but still.  It's a novel, there have to be other ways to
develop the characters and story.

There were a few good passages, and a couple great ones, but I didn't make
notes or highlight passages for later all the much.  There was exactly one
passage that blew my socks off, and exactly three moments where I thought,
"finally, it's a Pynchon novel again" ... I laughed / smiled a dozen times
or so, but nothing compared to the British candy scene in GR or the opening
disability-check stuff in Vineland.  I agree with those who think the
writing quality is below IV, to say nothing of all the rest of his novels.


On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 8:04 AM, John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com> wrote:

> I love the dissonance amongst readers when it comes to IV and BE. To
> me the latter is streets ahead of the former in terms of the quality
> of writing. As Fiona and Max say, the density of the dialogue/prose is
> its strength. But each their own.
>
> However, I do think that the overall arc of Bleeding Edge is the most
> thought-out of Pynchon's novels, perhaps his attempt to address his
> own admitted shortcomings when it comes to plotting.
>
> All I am saying, is give Maxi a chance.
>
> On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 9:48 PM, Carvill John <johncarvill at hotmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>I'm not sure how BE is a decline from IV.
> >
> > I was thinking in terms of the quality of the writing.
> >
> >
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>
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