About to dive in. What does /lit/ think of McElroy?

>>9275146
Nobody here has read him which means he's probably very good

Prose poem gibberish.

I really like A Smuggler's Bible, just got Cannonball, Lookout Catridge, and Ancient History. Looking forward to those.

>>9275177
I loved Cannonball. One of the best books I've read in a while.

>>9275160
So, every novel you're too stupid or too lazy to comprehend is gibberish?

>>9275146
Love him. Hope you have read his other books he wrote before that

>>9275160
This is very wrong

Let me see if I still have saved what I posted in the last McElroy thread:

In reference to the 'hermit inventor': It's a few things, you have a sort of dualism with the hermit inventor and the anzazi weatherman, who's a more mystical figure and immortal, whereas the hermit inventor is reborn every other generation as a nephew. The hting about WnM is that things build out of a sort of mythology complete with reincarnations and avatars, so the Hermit popped up more than a few times (telling the grandma to go west while also telling Jim about the final more sci-fi setup). Try to attach notions of puritan seculaism (if such a concept exists) to the hermit, thinking of him as the creator of newyork as well as an image of our salvation (i mean jesus was an inventor). WnM will try to reconcile seemingly opposing forces a lot: the earth and the sky, faith and reason, men and women.

more on this "reconcilliation" I think there is at least one point where the hermit inventor becomes Jim or the weatherman, this is another thing WnM will do a lot, merging two objects or diverging the histories of one object into two (think the pistol that's been passed around in Jim's family only to show up among some hicks living outside his home). So there will be times where you can assign the role of the inventor to Jim, the guy by the statue of liberty who tells his grandma to go west, or even Jim. (or his brother)

for what it's worth there ARE some resources that I found super useful. If you're at a place that gives JSTOR access there are a couple interviews with McElroy that sort of dig into his process a little more, as well as another essay I really like that explores his (as well as gaddis, pynchon, ect) obsession with "excesss." I'll see if I can attach the links to a reply.
Here's a nice little interview that was done after WnM:

http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/24514809.pdf

And here's the more critical essay I mentioned:

http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1207862.pdf

>>9275235
I've read Cannonball. Fucking comfy

how and where did you come across this bab doy? was it expensive? looks like it's in really really good shape