# One last modernist yap

*The Urth list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 27 Oct 1999*

<https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1872>

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### Alice Turner
*27 Oct 1999, 19:17*

Oh my, we forgot Pynchon. How could we? Some people even like him a lot, or
claim to. I thought -Vineland- was crap, but I don't think that counts. I
guess DeLillo is a modernist too, at least sometimes.

Well, I'm sort of astonished that there's so much interest in this subject,
but it's a kick, too. I mentioned -Catch-22-as "pop modernism." I'd like to
add to that category the oeuvres of Kurt Vonnegut and Philip K. Dick.
Vonnegut was an interesting writer, early on. He's become a lazy hack, and I
think it's great that he's announced his
"retirement," since I don't want to read any more of his books. Dick was a
hack too, but I think he could be counted among the more interesting pop
modernists. I confess that I never could read much of him either. (One of
the conditions for joining the club seems to be relative unreadability.) His
post-mortem elevation is certainly a phenomenon.

And no, Alex, I don't want to discuss racism yet. First I have to defend my
geographical theories!

Oh, and Wombat, thanks for picking out the nugget of gold in my last leaden
rant.

-alga

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### Jack Lyons
*27 Oct 1999, 20:01 · follows Alice Turner*

On Wed, 27 Oct 1999, Alice Turner wrote:

:Oh my, we forgot Pynchon.

*I* didn't. :) My heavily dog-eared and annotated copy of
Gravity's Rainbow has faithfully graced my nightstand for
many, many years. Just pick it up and start reading,
anywhere. :)

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