[ifinnegan]

I agree with you about Pink Floyd.

I think Joyce is in his own category, apart from almost everything.

The passage I pasted in I thought was culturally interesting. It’s a lot longer and the sailor is quite a character and probably realistic in large part.

It obviously wasn’t drivel.

I think one reason Joyce is igood is he was anti-establishment but not political at all.

Joyce is the real deal. Pynchon, Wallace, others are like you describe Pink Floyd, but not even that good.

[Steely Tom]

Glad you brought up Pynchon. He's another one I made a serious effort to get into.

I started — and finished — with The Crying of Lot 49. I really tried, getting through about two-thirds of the novel before deciding that (a) I got it, I saw what he was about and where he was going, and (b) it was mostly BS, with what little wasn't BS being obvious and trivial insights into American society.

Like Pink Floyd, I think Pynchon is technically excellent but only that. He has nothing to say about the great themes that hasn't been said countless times before, and better.

I've personally known only two people who touted Pynchon as a great writer, and both were people to whom it was very important to be seen as being smart, as deep thinkers. I can see how Pynchon appeals to people of that type. I've read as much as I could find about Pynchon on line, and from what I can tell he is himself a person "of that type," so he appeals to people like himself.

Like so many artists, he thinks that his technical skills make his little hang-ups, injuries and paranoias worth being preserved for the ages. I don't agree, but that's just me.

[Steely Tom]

I agree that Joyce is better than Pynchon, but that's like saying Eddie Van Halen is better than George Thorogood.

Neither of them is on the same level as Jimmy Page, or Larry Carlton.