Jeangoldstrom
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I Love AR
Posts: 341
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Gary, you are so right about Neuromancer. I could not get any meaning out of it either.
And gschaade, I remember _trying_ to reach Pynchon's "V," and thinking What planet is this guy writing about? It's not the one where I live.
There were a lot of articles about the author of Catcher in the Rye when he died a year or so ago. In one of them, I read that two or three book critics (ones from major NY papers) got together and decided this was great stuff -- and their preachments convinced their fellow reviewers to fall into line, thus "a star is born." I thought Catcher was a charmer when I read it, but from what I see on the Net, today's students contemplate suicide as a desirable alternative to having to read Catcher at school. So...it spoke to its era, I think -- but apparently not to this one. And it's status as a cultural icon was somewhat manufactured.
I wonder if Pynchon and Gibson had something like this going for them?
I remember when I was a reporter for a daily in Baltimore, our film critic would not review a film until she read what Pauline Kael had to say about it, and then she, too, fell into line.
Hm...."makes one think, eh, Hastings?" as (I think it is) Poirot would say.
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