Pynchon, & The Mauve Decade

[Mark Kohut]

Have we established that TRP probably read Thomas Beer's *The Mauve Decade,
*a tidbit from which
I quoted the uther day? Subtitled *American Life at the End of the
Nineteenth Century, *it was a bestseller
in the United States in 1926.

"The critic Alfred Kazin ...called Beer one of the *exquisites...*[he was]
one of the most influential in carrying
the sophisticated tendencies of the nineties to new refinements in the
twenties. He combined the request for
reality of feeling of Crane with the aesthetic standards of Huneker and
some of the stylistic mannerisms of
Henry James." ---from the intro by Frank Freidel.          Doncha love that
'reality of feeling" of Crane?

Beer was also praised by a young Lewis Mumford, a very probable Pynchon
influence. "'An aristocratic sense of precision,
of intellectual balance and moral poise"...."a standard of exacting
craftsmanship"......Now you have to love "moral poise"
as it might apply to Pynchon, right?

I'm enjoying it inordinately.

Here's some Pynchon & mauve
https://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?search=mauve&go=Go