Orfeo -

[Becky Lindroos]

I agree about The Echo Maker and Generosity - yes!   The difference between those two books and The Goldbug Variations or Orfeo is that in the latter two Powers really focuses on the ideas over the character development. The ideas carry it, although Peter Els, the protagonist, is better done than any character Powers has done prior.  That strengthens those novels because, as  you say, his skills in reproducing actual human behavior are limited.  I understand that Galatea 2.2 is also excellent.  I was unable to finish Plowing the Dark  or Gain (although I did try, many years ago).  The Echo Maker and Generosity were disappointing - again - and I feared we’d never get another Goldbug Variations.  We still haven’t but at least with Orfeo I can believe the same author wrote it.    

To interest a couple more maybe - the book is about 20/21st century music - some of my annotations - there are bios and YouTube samples: 

...musical pieces and names – Gustav Mahler (p. 28)  and his music (Kindertotenlieder) (p.28),  Milton Babbitt and “Who Cares If You Listen?” (p. 99),  the Imp Saint, John Cage (p. 100) and music.  –  And there’s the incredible story of Messiaen and his fellow prisoners and their Quartet for the End of Time:(Youtube) and  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quatuor_pour_la_fin_du_temps

Crumb’s Black Angels – (p. 183)

George Rochberg – String Quartet (p. 183)

Fyodorov / transhumanism  (p. 210)

 Arvo Pärt  bio http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arvo_Pärt  (p. 238)

“How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life”  (Reich- Proverb -Wittgenstein – p. 245)
or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlq_gucLdWg

The Siege of Münster, 1534
and
Meyerbeer Le prophéte 

Shostakovich / Stalin

Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District
4th Symphony
5th Symphony – Repsonse to Stalin  

the sounds of DNA 

Harry Partch  Barstow

 

On Sep 14, 2014, at 7:57 AM, Steven Koteff <steviekoteff at gmail.com> wrote:

> Admittedly haven't read a ton of Powers. What I have read, I've felt is interesting and largely successful on a macro/structural scale, on the level of ideas, etc., (i.e. reading an outline of one of his novel's you'd think he must be really worthwhile), but then once you actually read the thing and get inside the actual scenes, he's often very obtuse, sort of clumsy with prose, limited (in some ways, in other ways just broad or too technical) insight with regards to human emotion/psychology, tends toward the cliché, so on. I guess ultimately I felt like his scenic skills diminished the book and its broader ideas as a whole (maybe this is not uncommon with idea-driven writing?), and I think I would've gotten more out of someone just telling me what the book was about (the less to roll one's eyes at).
> 
> This is mainly in response to The Echo Maker. Happy to be argued with and to have my mind changed, of course. 
> 
> On Sun, Sep 14, 2014 at 7:53 AM, Becky Lindroos <bekker2 at icloud.com> wrote:
> I finished Orfeo by Richard Powers and have to tell you all that this is the best thing Powers has done since The Goldbug Variations.
> Excellent.  I was googling all the musical references and the artists etc. so it took longer but I was in a little piece of heaven for awhile.
> 
> :-)
> 
> Bekah
> https://beckylindroos.wordpress.com-
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
> 

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