The Diffi(cult)ly of Thomas Pynchon

Well boy howdy . . . here's Thomas Pynchon! He's kind of a difficult read, no? So anyway, here's an entire "internet page" of advice for how to make your way through Pynchon for the first (and second and third) time. Some excepts:

Steven Maas
I tell Pynchon newbies:

• It's the most fun you can have without risking arrest in many states.
• Leave your preconceptions at the door and enjoy your new and exotic surroundings.
• If something baffles you, read on for the next moment of searingly bright light and don't worry about it. With time and re-readings everything (well, many things) will be made clear.
  

Difficult, schmifficult!

Lindsay Gillies:
Four short principles for newbies:

• Read each word, one after the other. Gravity's Rainbow is a deeply interconnected stream of jazz — you can't skim it.
• Let the stream affect you without trying to figure it out. Give up to it.
• Commit to getting through the first 50 pages. It's something very different than most other stuff you've read; not harder, just harder to hear.
• If, after 1, 2 & 3, you still don't connect, don't write it off, just put it away for a while.

And as my office mate and fiction writer Dave Nicholas says about writers: "If you've been on The Simpsons, you've achieved something."

See you there . . .

Happy Spring Break

Here's a shorter version of "The Waste Land," for your Spring Break enjoyment:

grumble . . . grumble . . . SOMETHING IN GREEK. . . grumble . . . grumble . . . DANTE . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . LONDON IS A HORRIBLY FRIGHTENING PLACE DON’T YOU AGREE . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . SHAKESPEARE! . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . THE BIBLE THE BIBLE THE BIBLE . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . THIS ONE ELIZABETHIAN SOMETHING OR OTHER . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . VEGETATION MYTH . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . DANTE X2 . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . A NURSERY RHYME OR TWO . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . THE GRAIL . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . GREEK MYTH . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . A LARGE PORTION OF EASTERN PHILOSOPHY . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . A SONG I HEARD JUST THIS OTHER NIGHT . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . CUT BY POUND . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . THE END? . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . WE’LL SEE ABOUT THAT

Somebody's on to something!

Simply Me has a simply brilliant reading of "Burial of the Dead," the first section of "The Waste Land" (TWL):

The first section of the poem is titled the "The Burial of the Dead", sounds great? NOT. I thought to myself why would I want to read something that is titled that way. The title threw me off and the poem is nothing what you expect it to be. Eliot is talking about more then just literarily burying the dead. He is talking about the seasons dying. Summer is great but then fall comes around and everything dies. Also in the first section he says, "I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter." Made me think of how the birds migrate south in the winter for the warm weather. Maybe the world which he is living in "dies" so to speak because all of this.

She's right! One of the themes of TWL is the death and (hopefully) rebirth of the earth. Almost all ancient cultures had something called a "vegetation myth," a way of explaining to themselves (pre-science) why the earth grew cold and dark for a third of the year. If you put yourself in someone else's shoes who doesn't have the benefit of science to explain winter, it's a pretty frightening thing to experience.

Here's the vegetation myth in Greek Mythology, the story of Demeter and Persephone.

Some Words on "Tradition and the Individual Talent"

T.S. Eliot's essay, much like a lot of his stuff, is a daunting thing to encounter at first. That's why is I think Fresh does a really nice job isolating one of its main points:

Eliot describes in this case how poems as they are related to other poems and how that relation essentially makes or breaks them. Writing like many things in life comes from a long line of antecessors who have affected the way we write even today.

Regarding the above photo: I've always been fascinated with Eliot's hair. What kind of product does he use to get that effect?

Once, during a particular intensive week or so of reading Eliot, I had a dream in which Eliot and Ezra Pound spend a great deal of time making fun of my hair. It was weird.

The exasperation that is Eliot

R.A. Bella has a great post looking at some of the themes of Eliot's "The Waste Land":

A prevailant them throughout appears to be death, and life that cycles through death. Symbols of life are breeding lilacs(known for passion, beauty, deise, promise and life), summer, rain, rivers, lakes(all water representative of life) Where he writes," I will show you fear in a handful of dust, he is stating that life is fleeting, he writes again and again of life coming out of death. He writes of the warning of fleeting lives as he writes," Fresh blows the wind to the homeland; my Irish child, why are you waiting?He gives another symbol of life, the hyacinth girl. The line below says that 'waste and empty is the sea' Since the water represents life I am thinking that he is saying that life is empty when caught up in the past.

What do you want Essay #2 to be about?

So I'm in the midst of grading your first set of essays, and it led me to think about Essay #2. I'm still tossing around a few ideas about the assignment, which I'll give you before Spring Break.

But I wanted to hear your ideas--I'm sure you have them. So, let me ask this question: What would make a good topic for Essay #2?

I'm really interesting in your ideas for an assignment. I can't say that I'll definitely use an of them, but I thought bringing you guys into this conversation would be good for the class.

So, if you have ideas, half-ideas, thoughts, or suggestions for what you'd like to write about for the second essay, please leave them in the comments here.