About not REALLY caring whether TRP got the Nobel. I spoke too soon.

[Mark Kohut]

Love the last line.....so we are as ambivalent as one of Pynchon's
ambiguous concepts?
One belief larger than any Academy I have is the belief in History's
Literary judgments ...eventually.

There is a wonderful essay in harper's or The Atlantic about how
Shakespeare's rep grew over 400 years.
I want to believe that THAT will continue and that it will apply to
Pynchon.

On Sun, Jan 24, 2016 at 10:41 AM, Steven Koteff <steviekoteff at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I don't disagree on a fundamental level though at the same time I'm just
> as suspicious of that feeling. It's not that different from, say, someone
> considered more strictly a religious prophet: if you believe that someone
> is exposing/creating something true of and life affirming in the
> world...don't you want them to get as much attention as possible? If it's
> really something you believe in? I always think about how, if I belonged to
> a church and really believed in it, it would seem selfish, short-sighted,
> and negligent not to want everybody else to get saved. But then of course
> it only makes sense for YOUR True Prophet--when anybody else tries to
> thrust one on you, it seems evil. But then an awareness of this--and the
> suspicion of 1's own certainty--seems to be one of the uniquest and wisest
> aspects of the Pynchster. I don't know. But then maybe good needs
> proselytizers as much as evil does. Needs more consideration. I think for
> the near future any extra attention the world pays to TRP's work yields
> solid RoI. But I'm cautious about that belief's ability to move me to have
> a strong or proactive opinion about the somewhat arbitrary decisions of a
> board of powerful people on another continent.
>
> Plus, I dunno, after just spending seven years in--in some ways--the
> beating heart of The Academy (which I know is not the same as the Nobel
> committee) I gotta say I have slightly more romantic ideas of how TRP's
> stuff is best and most potently spread. Maybe, like any exchange of love or
> positive energy, it is best spread from one person to another, with great
> urgency. Maybe it is more meant for smuggling than crowning.
>
>
>
> On Jan 24, 2016, at 4:28 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> But I think I really do. Seeing how prizes create readers and big prizes
> create canons faster,
> I wrote this recently to non-Plist industry friends when I sent them
> Tore's piece for Engdahl and the Nobel
> words.
>
>
> _____________________________________________________________________________
> Have you browsed in a macro way in the fiction section of any library
> lately? . With your general knowledge of most of the writers who have been
> published to acclaim since you started reading? Everywhere, any country,
> even America, you will notice how libraries buy, maybe overbuy and
> keep---teachers choose them for study-- the Nobel winners much more in
> stock vs so many others from any country.
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20160124/f7b6a512/attachment.html>