What Do You Want from Fiction?

[David Casseres]

Fiction gives me so many things. But Pynchon's fiction, specifically, tells
me a story about the World that speaks in my own tongue, and gives me a
little comradeship in my perplexities about it. What does it mean, the way
we all deface its beautiful Map with our scrawls and scratchings (or is it
sometimes illumination?)? And what does it mean, the way Some People seek
to utterly defile it in pursuit of wealth and power?

I think we all know the basic facts, but fiction gives us some ways to
think about them that we would not find otherwise. From (let's say) the
Herero genocide, so bound to the geography of southwest Africa, through
GR's meditations on IG Farben, Kekulé's serpent, chemical transformation of
the world via plastics, through M&D's fusion of land-surveying with
geomancy and ATD's account of the American West, mining, and the politics
of dynamite – well there's an opera's worth of drama and an epic's worth of
poetry for us to play with in talking about that defacement and defilement
I mentioned above.

…Then there's the other aspect, speaking of opera and poetry: the way the
sentences roll, the cadences of the paragraphs the twisting of a word into
something new, that English major stuff. There's that too.

And really, though I talk about Pynchon, it's the same with other fiction
that resonates for me: Shakespeare, Wolfe, Melville, Twain, Kesey, Homer.
Fiction gives us voices to sing and shout with.

On Wed, Apr 1, 2015 at 8:47 PM, David Ewers <dsewers at comcast.net> wrote:

> I'd say all of those things, and many more.  At risk of sounding corny, I
> think of fiction as a profound form of two-way, imagination to imagination
> communication (it's a hard thing to put into words, ha ha... but there's
> life in it; I'll say that much...)
>
> I very much relate to your description of Pynchon's writing and its
> effects (I'd vote for V., but I get what you mean about GR).  I also can
> relate to you about the dissatisfaction.  I suspect you're right that
> Pynchon is himself unsure.  At the same time, if I thought he was sure, I
> wouldn't trust him.  Would you?  To state the obvious, maybe, I'd say his
> writing invites us to embrace the uncertainty (what choice do we have, if
> we're being honest?); not by believing nothing, but by believing
> everything.  Say yes and go from there.  I like to think that's my policy
> anyway.  It makes life more fun, and it makes reading Pynchon's books a
> blast, given all the great, bizarre stuff he gives us to play with.  I love
> trying to achieve that strange synthesis (or whatever...) with ideas, etc.
> I've gotten that achieving-synthesis feeling many times reading Mr.
> Pynchon, and the feeling is "real" and sublime.
>
> So is it satisfying?  My annoying answer is, Yes and no, so yes.
>
>
>
> On Apr 1, 2015, at 6:58 PM Jolly good day we are having, David Morris
> wrote:
>
> > A Consumer Question: What motivates your reading of fiction?
> > Boredom? Truth-seeking! Aesthetics? Hunger for...
> >
> > For me Pynchon has always represented someone who is trying to
> understand and then message his understanding of "Reality."  He does so by
> constantly portraying the perspective of many loony historical examples. We
> are invited to scoff!  But underneath, there is sincerity. In GR he is his
> most "Mystic," and that is why it is my favorite. Yet I have always felt a
> dissatisfaction with GRs leading questions met with unknowing, it feels
> like, despite the sincerity, Pynchon is himself usure. That uncertainty is
> morally good. But is it satisfying?
> >
> > Just a Question.
> >
> > David Morris
> >
> > I think most seek self with identify witty, but his love of the world
> gvdsa
> >
> >
> >
>
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20150401/ced0b68c/attachment.html>