how is Pynch able to write in the 18th century style so accurately and with so much soul? He truly is The Master.
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how is Pynch able to write in the 18th century style so accurately and with so much soul? He truly is The Master.
By reading both lots of documents and literature from the period and paying attention to vocabulary, grammatic structures, and spelling differences.
accurately? its not meant to be accurate. the syntax is more like modern day than it was back then, which is why the prose is still pretty easy to understand.
Hey Paul
The best example of this i've ever encountered (by far) is the sot-weed factor by john barth. He even emulates an even older version of english in the journal passages of John Smith and his second in command.
couldn't recommend it highly enough especially if you're a fan of pynchon
He probably read a few period grammars like Johnson's, read some modern descriptive analysis of the period's grammar, and read some period literature. He still uses some modern grammatical constructs.
The narrative for Sot-Weed has a strong bend towards modern grammar, it is what makes it read so effortlessly to modern readers. John Smith parts (and probably whats his name second in command) is done in the style of John Smith. Both Barth and Pynchon make concessions to the modern reader.
It's also worth mention that writings outside of poetry and higher prose are extremely clear. Burton and Browne are both outright lucid, with few archaic turns what stem foremost from writers attempting an ever older register. But I'm a hick from around when English diverged and came to rest in the mountains isolated, so it ain't too far from how some old and dead kin would talk were they educated.
>how is Pynch able to write in the 18th century style so accurately and with so much soul?
It's not that impressive if you consider that he's lived for 2000 years and so he has direct experience of that era
>The Master
That is a title reserved exclusively for Henry James.
Henry James is a shit writer. Pyncho is the new Master.
son Thomas Pynchon & Mason & Dixon xon
This is one of my favorite books. The imagery of George Washington offering up quality Virginia-grown ganja to the lads with his slave there is genius.
i can do earlier, what am I?
>accurately
>soul
It possesses neither and it was best the first time with Sotweed Factor.
Dudeweed Factor was well-done but didn't have nearly the same depth that M&D did. 90% of the book is either over-the-top cruelty and misery piled on Ebenezer or a new character that shows up for five minutes before he's revealed to be secretly Burlingame with an extra fetish.
M&D was a fricking emotional journey. The section where they're old and have long since finished the survey but imagine an alternate version where they trace the line all the way to the Pacific nearly moved me to tears.
That last part is the only real emotion M&D has, the bulk is monotone and really dragged on me on the reread.
Idk I thought pretty much all of it had emotion
Me too. Once you get the sentimentality of the friendship out of the way it doesn't hit as heavy. There's some interesting stuff he's doing with the introduction of technology and how it starts to affect society, but overall...meh.
They're both good but Sotweed Factor held up a lot better for me on reread. The ending almost brought a tear to my eye.
tried reading Sot-Weed and it was just a bunch of misery and rape. Does it get better towards the end (ie, more emotional?)
true
Peter Ackroyd did fake 18th century the best
which novel of his are you talking about?
NTA but I assume he's talking about the novel Hawksmoor. I haven't read it but a review it for praised for having "convincingly 18th-century prose"
This has not only been done by him, e.g.
Capítulos que se le olvidaron a Cervantes.
dropped this shit when a talking dog showed up out of nowhere
pynchon is truly deranged