During a conversation with Leonard Pierce of the A.V. Club, Harold

>>8382628
>Bloom puts Mason & Dixon over Gravity's Rainbow
Pretty based tbqh

>>8382630
Good post.

I really don't understand Bloom. He's pretty good on pre-modern literature, even if he is a one-trick pony. But on modern literature he likes the schlockiest fucking HE HE HE ITS POSTMODERN garbage that was only good for 5 years before it was overdone.

He just seems like more the kind of guy who would go and explain to random kids playing Pokemon in a museum why they should pay attention to some Durer painting, than the guy who jerks off in front of Rauschenberg's "Explosive Chili Farts #9."

>>8382628
>or if it were a short novel it would probably be The Crying Of Lot 49
He was so close to being non-turgid and right, too

>>8382630
>>8382637
No.

>>8382630
Not really. I think if there's any reason for this it's the echo-chamber and saturation of praise surrounding Gravity's Rainbow since its release that has caused critics to cool off to its impact, but in reality everything said about it is well-deserved. Its a more intellectually interesting and ground-breaking book by far, without being contrived or blatantly grasping at meaning-- to mention things aside from its highly unique style and structure. That isn't to say Mason & Dixon isn't great, or anything less than a modern classic, or highly original in its own right. I just don't think, in 30 years or so, it will be regarded as his most important work. It's a very modern take on the feel-good novel, whereas GR is a whole different ballgame.

I will say I think TCOL49 is an odd choice for a short novel. That is one of the most forgettable of Pynchon's better works.

>>8382650
>It's a very modern take on the feel-good novel
reductive
>I just don't think, in 30 years or so, it will be regarded as his most important work
well in 90 years or so bleeding edge will be regarded as his most important and it's not as good as either of them, so that's all fairly irrelevant