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Is that article actually in English? I couldn't understand a damn thing the author was trying to say. "...like a black pearl from an oyster unfathomable by any
by mindrag 13y ago
Is that article actually in English? I couldn't understand a damn thing the author was trying to say.
"...like a black pearl from an oyster unfathomable by any other diver into our eternal souls."
What?
- tlb 13y agoThe reviewer is indulging in Pynchon-esque language here. Pynchon is hard to read, and people still debate the meaning of his books. You might enjoy them if you let go of expecting every sentence to make logical sense.
- briancaw2 13y agohttp://www.slate.com/authors.troy_patterson.html http://www.slate.com/authors.troy_patterson.html
- jonnathanson 13y agoPynchon is a lyricist and a madman, and he's damned good at being both. I wince when I read others trying to cop his style, even if momentarily. Troy Patterson is good, often really good, but he sounds fake here.
- derleth 13y ago> I wince when I read others trying to cop his style, even if momentarily. The same is true for me when people try to copy Faulkner, or James Joyce, or Hunter Thompson, or, from another angle, Hemingway.
- hvs 13y agoWelcome to modern literature. If you can understand what they are saying, then it isn't any good. It's like abstract art applied to words.
- Yourfags 13y agoit's delightful!
- youredelightful 13y ago
- yolesaber 13y agoExcept that the current vogue in modern literature is hyper-realist memoiristic writing which eschews the Moderist approach of purpled prose in favor of more intimate relations between characters without overbearing literary flourishes e.g. Jonathan Franzen
- ryanklee 13y agoLike Yolesaber suggests, this is a gross mis-characterization. You need to read more and more widely. It's no longer 1935. And even then, at the height of modernism, a wide spectrum existed. Edit: Obviously, reading literature is an entirely optional activity. I don't mean to suggest that you are obligated to do so. Only that to be familiar with the subjects that one makes claims about isn't such a horrible idea.
- percentcer 13y agoYou left out "glinting rich and strange", which helps to make sense of "into our eternal souls". Black pearls are rare with a somewhat subjective beauty, "unfathomable" can be interpreted literally in the analogy but also holds its normal meaning, and "any other diver" refers to any author but Pynchon.
- saraid216 13y ago> "unfathomable" can be interpreted literally in the analogy but also holds its normal meaning Near as I can tell without reading the article, this sentence uses "unfathomable" with all of its meanings. Which I find nifty.
- lovemenot 13y agoFor this to work beautifully, we would fathom pearls when finding or collecting them. afaik only depths of water can be the literal object of the verb to fathom. It doesn't quite succeed, here. Which is likely why Pynchon is celebrated and the reviewer is reviewing him, rather than the reverse.
- saraid216 13y agoThe fathoming happens inside the pearl.
- nealabq 13y agoThe author is riffing on Shakespeare: Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes; Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Fathom_Five_%28Tempest%29#.22Full_Fathom_Five.22 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Fathom_Five_%28Tempest%29#...