Is there any novelist more skilled than Pynchon? The mastery of his prose is redolent of Joyce, and yet it also encapsulates the daring poeticism of Ginsberg. And while Joyce was a poet in his own right, his work is wholly staid when juxtaposed with that of Pynchon--indicative of the dissonance between their eras, I suppose. And Pynchon is the perfect author for anyone who frequents a vocabulary forum; I'm pretty sure he could play Scrabble against professionals--yes, they have pro Scrabble--and dominate. So Pynchon is my favorite author, what about everyone else?

I like Pynchon, though he's not my favorite. If I remember correctly, Zmj really likes Pynchon, too. I can see from your name that you like Pynchon! Welcome to our board

No doubt about it, Pynchon is a great writer and I have tended to like his work, though I have not read his last couple of books, yet. When we tried reading The Crying nof lot 49 here, it soon became apparent to me that many did not share my opinion about the book's (or its author's) greatness. goofy's Peake is another example. I have a childhood friend who loves Peake. Me, I tried to read the Gormenghast trilogy once, and I pretty much bailed before finishing the first book. I found Peake's prose style wretched. Not to say that Peake isn't a good or even a great author, just that I have been on both sides of the line. It's probably got something to do with the genre, Peake wrote in. I have friends who love Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft, both of whom left this reader cold and uncaring. Come to think of it, I pretty much did not like Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, but did like Bram Stoker's Dracula, though Stoker, too, is a rather poor prose stylist. What I am trying to say, I suppose, is that at a certain point in one's aesthetic development, one try's to factor out the subjective emotions from an appreciation of literature as literature. I can recognize Pynchon, Updike, and DeLillo as being on a rather short list of great post-war American writers, although I personally don't care for the work of one of them.

quote:

Swelter's eyes met those of his enemy, and never was there held between four globes of gristle so sinister a hell of hatred. Had the flesh, the fibres, and the bones of the chef and those of Mr Flay been conjured away and away down that dark corridor leaving only their four eyes suspended in mid-air outside the Earl's door, then, surely, they must have reddened to the hue of Mars, reddened and smouldered, and at last broken into flame, so intense was their hatred - broken into flame and circled about one another in every-narrowing gyres and in swifter and yet swifter flight until, merged into one sizzling globe of ire they must surely have fled, the four in one, leaving a trail of blood behind them in the cold grey air of the corridor, until, screaming as they fly beneath innumerable arches and down the endless passageways of Gormenghast, they found their eyeless bodies once again, and re-entrenched themselves in startled sockets.

- Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan

Wretched... well maybe, but it's never boring

never boring

I know I will have to give him another chance some day. I do love his way with naming characters though: e.g., Prunesqualor. And I'll always appreciate Lovecraft's giving us the Necronomicon. I have noticed that how and when I came to an author oftentimes colors my initial reastion to him or her. I cam to Pynchon later, in graduate school. A fellow student in a writing class mentioned offhand to me how, given the way I write, I ought to enjoy Pynchon. I'd never even heard of him. (OK, so I was not an English major.) I went to the library and checked out Gravity's Rainbow and read it non-stop over a longish four-day weekend. I was thrilled. I next got Lot 49 and devoured it, but when I bought V. to take on a trip to LA, I hit a wall. I really didn't care for it. But, after letting it lapse, I took it up again up north, and loved it. I never finished Vineland and haven't started Mason & Dixon or Against the Day. Some day. Now Flann O'Brien, that's your man.

quote:

Originally posted by zmježd:
Flann O'Brien

I love The Third Policeman (here's an excerpt, here's another) and At Swim-Two-Birds ( excerpt) - I gave a copy to Shufitz last week because he hasn't read it. I couldn't get into The Dalkey Archive. It sounds good - James Joyce is enlisted to help prevent a mad scientist from destroying the world... I should give it another try.

quote:

Flann O'Brien

Not to mention Brian O'Nolan and, even better, Myles na gCopaleen (Cruiskeen Lawn).

Yep, At Swim-Two-Birds and The Third Policement are masterpeices. Dalkey Archive was OK. O'Brien (aka O'Nolan, his real surname, or Myles na gCopaleen) was great in all of his guises. Some Irish nationalists were taking him to task for belittling Ireland (cf. Joyce's "Ireland is a sow that devours its young") so he wrote a short book in Irish, which he knew most of his critics couldn't read An Béal Bocht "The Poor Mouth".

quote:

Originally posted by arnie:
Myles na gCopaleen

This is weird because it's neither Gaelic nor English. Maybe that's the point. In Gaelic it would be something like Míleas na gCopalín.

quote:

When we tried reading The Crying nof lot 49 here, it soon became apparent to me that many did not share my opinion about the book's (or its author's) greatness

If I recall, CW and I had an early morning chat with you about the book, and we both enjoyed the book immensely.

Actually I had exactly the same problem with Titus Groan. I was given the set as a present but couldn't manage to read the first volume. I just didn't care for the prose style at all.