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

[Steven Koteff]

I was just reading in (should I duck?) THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES about how the wisest angle actually resembles cruel indifference to people who are not so privileged/burdened. Because it takes such a broader view of events and accepts so much more tragedy as a given (inherent vice, so forth). I'm mostly just playing devil's ad. I play both these parts internally, so if you're gonna play one externally, I'll play the other. 

I want to think his work will be with us as long as--and in whatever form--we need it to, and I don't see that need lessening in the near future. 

> On Jan 24, 2016, at 10:03 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 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. 
> 
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