Everything okay out there in Pynchon-land?

[Erik T. Burns]

personally I think Don DeLillo has sort of lost his way. His imagined world
(that of Americana, White Noise, The Names, Libra and Underworld) turned
out to be the real world. The last few books have been much thinner, much
more cerebral in a less interesting way. I think I've read them all, may
have missed one. Oddly enough, the man seems happier now, which I hope is
true, as he ages. That would be a hopeful sign.

It's not unlike our Pynchon largely eschewing complexity and instead
noodling around with Inherent Vice and Bleeding Edge in a way that seems
altogether less serious than GR, V. or TCOL49, less inventive than M&D and
less exhausting than AtD. I'd put the pivot at Vineland, except M&D and AtD
both came thereafter. IMHO, AtD is a huge turd of a book dotted with the
occasional undigested golden nugget of corn. But then I am deep into (maybe
a 100 pages to go) a third reading (this time the audiobook) and mostly
bored, with the occasional flash of something big and bright and beautiful
beyond.

On Mon, Dec 4, 2017 at 8:26 PM, Becky Lindroos <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
wrote:

> I liked the juxtaposition of a lot of DeLillo's old themes with new
> material.   There's a kind tone of existential threat (horror?) here what
> with trying to distinguish between living and not living.   That ambiance
> or tone or atmosphere was also present in The Body Artist as well as Point
> Omega.
>
> And there’s a rather interesting,  albeit fictional,  exploration of the
> idea of cryogenics and immortality.  I thought it was an honest exploration
> although the ending seemed to suggest D was not convinced of its being a
> good idea.  (heh)
>
> The old DeLillo is present with films being important in the book -  again
> - what is life and what is media -  freezing the action?  Death on screen?
>
> I think this book got more personal this time.  The characters seemed to
> be more developed internally - they were thinking and feeling more than in
> most of D's prior novels,  especially Jeffrey.
>
> I like the way D writes.
>
> Underworld is still without question D’s tour de force,  his masterpiece,
> Cosmopolis his semi-clunker,  and this falls in the middle - along with The
> Names and Point Omega.
>
> Fwiw,  there’s a real cryonics lab in Arizona
> http://www.alcor.org
> and another one  in China -
> http://www.scmp.com/tech/science-research/article/1859328/cheating-death-
> elderly-writer-first-known-chinese-test-subject
> probably more by now.
>
> Becky
> https://beckylindroos.wordpress.com
>
> > On Dec 4, 2017, at 11:04 AM, Atticus Pinecone <atticuspinecone at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > I like DeLillo, but found Zero K rolling my eyes every few pages. What
> was it that you all liked about it?
> >
> > On Dec 4, 2017, at 1:24 PM, Laura Kelber <laurakelber at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> I thought the original question referred to the P-list -- the passing
> of the December 1st start of the M&D group read, and the deafening silence
> on that score -- rather than to Pynchon himself.
> >>
> >> LK
> >>
> >> On Mon, Dec 4, 2017 at 1:01 PM, Becky Lindroos <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
> wrote:
> >> I enjoyed Zero K -   I think it’s probably DeLillo at his usual finest
> - only Underworld and possibly The Names stand higher.  I also   was
> strongly reminded of Point Omega or,  maybe in some ways,  The Names.
> >>
> >>
> >> Becky
> >> https://beckylindroos.wordpress.com
> >>
> >> > On Dec 3, 2017, at 10:24 PM, Mark Thibodeau <jerkyleboeuf at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > Is it understood that the object of our obsession is currently
> working on a new long-form work? Or is this just conjecture?
> >> >
> >> > I'm half-way through Zero K, Delillo's latest. At this point, it
> could end up being just slightly better than, or just slightly less amazing
> than, Point Omega.
> >> >
> >> > Anyone else out there have any opinions re: Zero K?
> >> >
> >> > Jerky
> >> >
> >> > On Sun, Dec 3, 2017 at 8:56 PM, Arthur Fuller <
> fuller.artful at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> > Tough question, Tom's next location/dateline, especially after
> Vineland. But always willing to respond to difficult questions, I'm going
> to suggest that he return to the past, as Neal Stephenson did with the
> fabulous trilogy; alternatively, maybe he could pen a story about being
> best man to Richard Farina, who married Mimi, sister of Joan Baez and
> author of Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me.
> >> >
> >> > A.
> >> > ​
> >> >
> >>
> >> -
> >> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
> >>
>
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>
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