RE: friendly advice
WILL HOCHMAN (hochman@uscolo.edu)
Tue, 13 Jan 1998 10:23:54 -0700 (MST)
Underworld is the next book I will read--thanks, will
On Tue, 13 Jan 1998, D. wrote:
> At 09:02 AM 1/13/98 -0700, you wrote:
>
> >flame wars are really unnecessary--though I first read this post as
>
> >parallel to farrakann's calling judiasm "a gutter religion" and felt
> sad
>
> >since trashing so many beautiful ideas seems to be wasteful...but
> remember
>
> >seymour's fascination with ash trays? Faith and even holiness is in
>
> >rubbish as it is everywhere...like seymour, I find some of my best
> ideas
>
> >in ashtrays and garbage...bless rubbish everywhere, even on this list!
>
> >will
>
>
>
> Will and the rest of the list--
>
>
> DeLillo's <italic>Underworld</italic>, Pynchon's <italic>The Crying of
> Lot 49</italic> and <italic>Gravity's Rainbow</italic> and, of course
> T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland" all have very strong themes of waste or
> things discarded/"passed over" in them. Salinger seems to do this more
> indirectly through his characterizations.. In fact, one could say that
> many of the prominent American (fiction) writers since WWII have seen
> "waste" or "rubbish" as just as important, particularly as an "inversion"
> (hence, "The Inverted Forest") of our glitzy and glamourous twentieth
> century culture. I just finished <italic>Underworld </italic> by DeLillo
> and it is very interesting how he juxtaposed all forms of waste against
> the backdrop of the last 45 years. Salinger seemed to do this as well
> but more through small details such as Stradlater's dirty razor. Another
> fascinating literary topic for discusssion. . . .
>
>
> Cheers!
>
>
> D.
>
>
>
>