FEBER@USC-ISIB.ARPA (08/27/84)
Why is everyone picking on Pynchon? I, for one, found Gravity's Rainbow throroughly enjoyable, and even liked much of V. For some reason, since the publication of Slow Learner even the literary establishment has been cutting him apart. While I never thought of him as a major writer, I've always found him enjoyable, if slightly derivative (but I liked Dhalgren too). It amazes me that a compartively skilled writer such as Pynchon can be slammed on this list while such crude authors as Piers Anthony, whom I find unreadable, pass unscathed. BTW, If you like Pynchon you will probably NOT like Palimpsests. It is full of dead writing, continually straining after effects, and has almost no sense of humor. I was very disappointed in it as I bought it automatically based on the quality of the three previous books in the Ace series (Green Eyes - ok, The Wild Shore - superb, Neuromancer - very good). I hope Palimpsests is not indicative of the books to come in this series. (mark)
brucec@orca.UUCP (Master of the Belvedere) (09/04/84)
-------- <line food> >> It amazes me that a compartively skilled writer such as Pynchon can >> be slammed on this list while such crude authors as Piers Anthony, whom I >> find unreadable, pass unscathed. Agreed, Pynchon is a *skilled* writer, it's just that not all of us are willing to bull through all the extraneaous stuff he throws in to prove it. I generally liked "V" (even the South African garden party sequence, which did little to further anything else in the book), and I often wish that I had been able to get past page 100 in "Gravity's Rainbow." My tolerance for self-indulgent writing is just too low. We do agree about Piers Anthony. I have actually read several of his novels, and after each one I have asked myself why I bothered. The last straw was the "Planet of Tarot" series, which I read in a fit of boredom while on a long business trip. I actually emulated that old cliche of throwing the book across the room, shouting "Never again!" What irritates me is that he couldn't even get his research on the Tarot right. I could excuse his miserable writing and blatant sexism (he does know that women are human, doesn't he?) if he could just get *something* right. Bruce Cohen UUCP: ...!tektronix!orca!brucec CSNET: orca!brucec@tektronix ARPA: orca!brucec.tektronix@rand-relay USMail: M/S 61-183 Tektronix, Inc. P.O. Box 1000 Wilsonville, OR 97070