OT: Anathem

Dave Lebling · 17 Sep 2008, 00:12 · from 2008-September.txt.gz

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From: dlebling at hyraxes.com (Dave Lebling)
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:12:25 -0400
Subject: (urth) OT: Anathem
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0809170847390.12995 at orpheus.qimr.edu.au>
References: <39ed084f0809141908h4ee0b508oc6c0b1d6baf89abe at mail.gmail.com><81c420fa0809150655n78fcb8edy962294747fac784b at mail.gmail.com><44fb53d10809150841u565213cei1784a5112a21e7dc at mail.gmail.com><39ed084f0809151140h9e0652fjff92ad0cdc6331ff at mail.gmail.com><2f8557150809151154n176b532fl70cd27089a115b75 at mail.gmail.com><9527.67.142.130.23.1221530199.squirrel at brunians.org><DA32BD89-756E-48D1-A383-45F20E7DF766 at gmail.com><9769.72.171.0.141.1221537830.squirrel at brunians.org><CBCFDA04-ED4F-4F1C-934D-55BE2B4FE7D7 at gmail.com><14104.72.171.0.141.1221539102.squirrel at brunians.org>	<56E579CC-4AA9-4DAF-8140-6DA2F0E57A1B at io.com>
	<Pine.LNX.4.64.0809170847390.12995 at orpheus.qimr.edu.au>
Message-ID: <48D04B69.1040900 at hyraxes.com>

I'm a fan of Wolfe, Stephenson, Gibson, _and_ Pynchon. (Not to mention 
Sterling and Swanwick -- have we ever discussed Swanwick here?) Anyway, 
"Go figure."

Pynchon's most accessible novel is "The Crying of Lot 49." It has many 
of the themes he elaborates on in later novels (conspiracies, weird sex, 
technology, drugs, paranoia, nerdulent infodumps), but is short, funny, 
and to the point. "Gravity's Rainbow" is an incredible novel, but it's a 
hard slog for most people (you can tell the ones who gave up because 
they only talk about the "Banana Breakfast" scene, which occurs very 
early in a very long novel). I liked "Mason & Dixon" but found it 
overlong, and haven't managed (so far) to get past the first hundred or 
so pages of "Against the Day." "V," though, is readable and (again) 
comparatively short.

I like Stephenson a lot, and am reading "Anathem" now (and avoiding any 
potential spoilers). Like most Stephenson novels, it's starting somewhat 
slowly. I have read "The Baroque Cycle" twice and enjoyed it even more 
the second time. This is not unlike how I approach most of Wolfe's work: 
I've probably read "The Book of the New Sun" six or eight times at 
least, and still find new stuff each time. I disagree with Adam 
Thornton's comparison of "The Baroque Cycle" and "Gravity's Rainbow." 
Superficially it is accurate, but in practice "GR" is profoundly 
pessimistic and while it is vaguely about "how the present came to be" 
(and for Pynchon, that means the technological, deracinated, 
conspiracy-theorist, dehumanized present), "BC" is optimistic and about 
how the modern world and worldview was born and propagated (in a fairly 
short space of time in the 1600s). Thus, in spite of its setting and 
ostensible format ("historical novel"), "BC" is an SF novel, whereas 
"GR" is a modern or post-modern "mainstream" novel.

I am looking forward with anticipation to "An Evil Guest." (My wife 
discovered it inside our storm door as I was typing this message -- no 
doubt it fell from space in a leaden casket).

To further broaden the topic, I just finished "House of Leaves," by Mark 
Danielewski (sp?), another doorstop of a book, full of typographical 
foolery and unreliable narrators. It was creepy and I enjoyed it.

-- Dave Lebling, aka vizcacha

David Duffy wrote:
> On Mon, 15 Sep 2008, Adam Thornton wrote:
>
>>
>> On Sep 15, 2008, at 9:25 PM, brunians at brunians.org wrote:
>>
>>> I've had other people say similar things to me, but I don't see it 
>>> as all
>>> *that* good. But then I don't really like either Pynchon or Gibson 
>>> either.
>>>
>>
>> Seriously: the Baroque Cycle is _Gravity's Rainbow_ only set after 
>> the 30 Years' War rather than after WWII.
>>
>> Speaking of which: how many other hard-core Pynchon fans are there here?
>>
>
> Well I just finished _Against_the_day.  I avoided M&D as too long 
> (read all his others), but got sucked in by the first chapter of 
> _AtD_.  I like and have read everything of Stephenson's, but I was 
> glad to reach the end of the Baroque Cycle ;)
>
> Turning back to Wolfe, Pynchon is interested in a lot of the same 
> things -- I think here of power and violence and pulp literature 
> (_atD_ has a few Lovecraftian episodes as well as all the 
> edisonades/westerns) and a hard science background that is 
> deliberately held lightly -- but slightly different politics...and 
> more on-screen sex...and his puns are probably better.
>
> David Duffy.
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