One last modernist yap

Alice Turner · 27 Oct 1999, 19:17 · from urth-v0028.mbox · original

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From: "Alice Turner" <pei047 at attglobal.net>
Subject: (urth) One last modernist yap
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 19:17:05
Message-ID: <urth-v0028-0285 at digest.urth.net>
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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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