Re: Thomas Pynchon Predicted the Pandemic in 'Gravity's Rainbow.’ Now Aren't You Sorry You Didn't Read It?

[Erik T. Burns]

this is a good essay. I was kind of irked LeClair went to get a pull quote
from, of all things, "The Matrix," to pin down this "humans are the virus"
idea; TRP's version of it was plenty (and much less hacky than the Matrix
bit, or even the current & ridiculous "maybe we are the virus" meme.



On Sun, Jul 5, 2020 at 12:22 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> This imaginatively stretches the reading wonderfully, but it is so good. I
> love all the smart readings which take it away from the literal Blitz and
> rocket, which fetish pervades too many, I pick a fight with by declaring.
> (I'm done, you win).
>
> So alive and in touch with reality now and the reality of *Gravity's
> Rainbow*.(isn't the section quoted, which seldom is, GREAT?) All those
> tentacles and tendrils involved.
>
> LcClair has lived with this book from the beginning and makes the overall
> case again why great books "touch bottom" so well that they are always
> true. There it stands intertwined with Moby Dick,
> the two greatest American novels of their centuries, I say.
>
> My vote for the best critical essay of our times since.....Pynchon wrote
> the intro to the reissue of* 1984*? (written for effect and as if I know
> more than a few)
>
>
> https://www.thedailybeast.com/thomas-pynchon-predicted-the-pandemic-in-gravitys-rainbow-now-arent-you-sorry-you-didnt-read-it
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>