The 'Difficult' is easy.

[Mark Thibodeau]

Cool that you were published in the Grey Lady!

But, I disagree about your take on the review. I thought it was one of the
best reviews of Pynchon I'd EVER read. Seems to me dude really got it.

Jerky

On Sun, Jan 11, 2015 at 9:50 AM, Mark Wright <washoepete at gmail.com> wrote:

> Why was Gravity's Rainbow (@ 760 pp) so much easier for me to finish than
> Crying of Lot 49 (@ 180 pp)? Because, in spite of all its fabulations, it
> deals with the real world in a totally immersive manner, rather than with a
> fluffy little fantasy diorama. This should be emphasized to new P readers.
> CoL49 may seem like an easier way in, but it is a false lead because it
> makes P's method seem trivial. Why then, after all, would one bother with
> the monster everybody says is so "difficult?" (If one *must* suggest a
> shorter 'starter' book, Vineland would more likely set the hook and move
> readers on to GR and M&D.) Am I wrong?
>
> I touched on this in my letter to NYTimes book review:
>
> 4 Dec 2014
>
> To the Editor:
>
> Tom McCarthy’s review of “Gravity’s Rainbow” (Nov. 23), occasioned by its
> new audiobook release, will ward off potential readers/auditors rather than
> reel them in.
>
> This is sad, and so unnecessary. “Gravity’s Rainbow” was written to be
> read and enjoyed. It is anything but “opaque.” Its voice is that of an
> American ecstatic, and that voice will carry you if you don’t struggle. It
> has, and relies on, momentum: George H. W. Bush’s “Big Mo.” Do not stop to
> chase all those white rabbits down their holes, even though they look like
> Bugs Bunny. You are meant only to sense the rooted intricacy, depth and
> terror of Pynchon’s subterraneum. One day — later — if and only if you love
> the book for what it did to you — you might go spelunking. But to task a
> brand-spanking-new reader with mapping these labyrinths is foolish and does
> everyone a disservice, including the author. So cut it out.
>
> This new Penguin audiobook is wonderful on two levels. George Guidall
> makes complex language scan beautifully. Clearly he knows and likes the
> book, and has taken his time with it. He knows what he is saying, and why.
> A gifted audio editor then made his performance sound rounded and seamless.
> But on another level, Guidall’s reading puts the rhythm of that astounding
> Voice front and center where it belongs.
>
> MARK WRIGHT
>
> GLEN RIDGE, N.J.
>
> Regrettably the Times changed my "Dick Nixon" to the arhythmic "George H.
> W. Bush." I was making an oblique reference to Oliver Stone's
> semi-invented, composite (and therefore Pynchonian) Nixon, not to the
> historical President Richard Milhouse Nixon about whom operas will be
> written. (Wait...what...John Adams...)
>
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