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From: floyd@brl-smoke.ARPA (Floyd C. Wofford )
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Re: Thomas Pynchon
Message-ID: <1674@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 10-Mar-86 09:23:59 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-smok.1674
Posted: Mon Mar 10 09:23:59 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Mar-86 20:47:06 EST
References: <25@rtgvax.UUCP> <105@sdchema.sdchem.UUCP> <259@mplvax.ARPA> <1316@brl-smoke.ARPA> <672@steinmetz.UUCP>
Reply-To: floyd@brl-smoke.ARPA (Floyd C. Wofford (MMW) <floyd>)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL)
Lines: 29

In article <672@steinmetz.UUCP> putnam@kbsvax.UUCP (jefu) writes:
>This is not intended to be a flame, but i would never put Barth and
>Pynchon in with Brautigan, et al.  I _might_ class Barth and Pynchon
>together, and throw in Gunther Grass and Gabriel Garcia Marquez and ...
>but only with reluctance.  Certainly anyone reading Vonnegut or Robbins
>and enjoying them should not assume that they will like Pynchon or
>vice versa.  Both Barth and Pynchon are a good deal denser than any of
>Vonnegut, Robbins, Brautigan and similar types and require a lot more
>work to read.  Of course, you can get much more out of them.  Barth,
>for example, like to steal plots and characters from all sorts of places
>and dump them in together, and stir well.  If you dont recognize where
>he stole them from, the story wont be half as much fun.  
>-- 
>               O                   -- jefu
>       tell me all about           -- UUCP: {rochester,edison}!steinmetz!putnam
>Anna Livia! I want to hear all.... -- ARPA: putnam@GE-CRD

And it certainly is not taken to be a flame.  It is taken to be a discussion
of styles of various contemporary writers.  This is good.  I learn and 
hopefully others do too.  That is also an excellent use of the net.  I
thank you for such thoughtful and insightful comment.  I read 'One Hundred
Years of Solitude' several years ago and it still remains one of the
unique reading experiences I have enjoyed.  Anyone who refuses to read it
doesn't deserve a second chance.  To compare Pynchon to Marquez is
remarkable.  I didn't think anyone in the U.S. was writing with the feel
of anyone south of our territorial borders.  You whet my appetite for both
Barth and Pynchon more.

floyd@brl.arpa