The Goldfinch

[Mark Kohut]

Yes, very Dickensian, I'm sure. But many of our best writers imbibe much, cf Shakespeare to Pynchon, and Shake it all out anew.

The " there, there," with the dying grandfather in that first afterblast scene seems clearly a Catch--22 death of Snowden scene allusion. 

And, I am either projecting my fanboy appreciation or much in that scene refracts some of the Crystal Palace scene stuff......she had an almost infinite way of writing him becoming conscious and feeling around in that scene---and she chose 1) to show him in confused semi-denial, in trauma-caused beginnings of grief and 2) to accent the material habitat he was now in.....in ways 
That used a lot of P's noticed things---( or most such aftermaths are mostly the same? I say No to that in that the ways of writing it are hugely various) 

She continues the shell-shockedness, the effect of trauma on a youthful consciousness that is 
First, terrif, maybe great, second, me borrowing from Mr. Wood, a kind of hysterical psychology.
Insight heightened. 

At a reading, when asked about seeming anachronisms and WHEN exactly was it set--she spoke of merging recent things, events, happenings so as not to place it In any EXACT time. 

Which Alice has shown us means she aimed for the Romance ( in Lit sense) genre, Gothic subdivision so far. 

Sent from my iPad

On May 10, 2014, at 2:39 PM, <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:

> I really liked the book, though I didn't catch any whiff of Pynchon or anything post-modern or even thematic about it. It seemed to me that the author was updating Dickens. Orphaned protagonist making his way in the world, encountering well-defined, occasionally bordering on cartoonish, characters who disappear, then reappear years later, with an ending that drifts slightly away towards a not completely satisfying - though not ambiguous - ending. It deserves the acclaim it's received, IMO.
> 
> Laura
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
>> Sent: May 10, 2014 10:20 AM
>> To: Allan Balliett <allan.balliett at gmail.com>
>> Cc: Pynchon-L <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>> Subject: Re: The Goldfinch
>> 
>> Let me be clear, as Nixon used to say. SPOILER ALERT so, go away if necessary.
>> 
>> She describes her protagonist, awaking inside the Met right after a terrorist bomb blast has knocked him unconscious. Her dwelling on the material destruction around him, glass, twisted 
>> Metal and stuff, no light, then peeks of light and more, all remind me of the fall of the Crystal Palace  opening of GR....
>> 
>> I very speculatively think she may pay homage to " a progressive knotting inward" when she writes how her protagonist, moving into a twisted mess, all bent and contracted....can not get back out ( which is objectively puzzling, inn't it? I mean he has just got there in a now-still location? So, he must go deeper in before he can get out....and he does. 
>> 
>> 
>> Sent from my iPad
>> 
>> On May 10, 2014, at 10:01 AM, Allan Balliett <allan.balliett at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> Feels like The Recignitions to me. But I only get the parts my wife reads aloud 
>>> 
>>> Allan in WV
>>> 
>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>> 
>>>> On May 9, 2014, at 8:57 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> If you have read it, and you have read the opening of Gravity's Rainbow some multiple of the times you have read Gravity's Rainbow, is the influence on Ms. Tartt's opening chapter very clear---with a " there, there" homage to Catch-22---or clearly projected by this reader
>>>> 
>>>> Sent from my iPad-
>>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>> -
>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
> 
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