Delillo>pynchon

I should explain. I was looking for Gass' essay on the leviathan when I came across this insightful piece explaining white noise. If you're one of the people who denigrate DeLillo every white noise thread by thinking it's about consumerism you should give this a look.

I'm . Your post has inspired me to pick it back up. I loved the highway killer chapter and the nun one.

Mcelroy>Gaddis>Hawkes>Pynchon>DeLillo>Barth>Percy>Gass>Burroughs>Acker>Baker>Wallace

my man

I've always thought it to be more about death and how consumerism is an anaesthetic for it

I hope you enjoy it.

le battle of obscurity face

protip: the correct order is the exact opposite of what you proposed

I haven't read any McElroy but I'd say Gaddis is better than DeLillo and Pynchon, even with his obvious repetitions and bluntness. I don't know how to express this correctly, but I'd say that Gaddis is far more "real" and his thematics obsessions are far more real, tangible and human while both Pynchon and DeLillo are more concerned with abstract thoughts expressed in far more detached styles, too aestheticized to merge the form and the themes in an organic way. You see the shape of it and see the ideas, but in Gaddis you see the ideas in the forms. Sorry for my english btw.

McElroy?! He's fucking trash. Gaddis and Pynchon wipe their asses with McElroy, holy shit.

Yea but why does that make Gaddis better though?

I guess it depends on the definition of "better". Gaddis is great at writing in a beautiful and original way, using that way to potentiate his stories, characters and themes. Both Pynchon and DeLillo write beautifully but DeLillo have always the samey kind of characters that just monologue about the themes the book wants to explore and Pynchon have good characters, but his novels themes are barely explored because too much is given to the importance of prose. I guess I consider Gaddis the best because he does the most things well. He's the least flawed and the most organic of them all.

I agree with this. The valuation of books as organic and warm instead of abstract and cerebral isn't something you see on Veeky Forums too often. They think that big words and dark humor and making your characters satirical cardboard cutouts means you're hip for reading it and the author's obviously a better writer.

Pynchon was probably definitely way smarter than Gaddis, and probably knows a lot more stuff than he did, but that doesn't necessarily mean he was a better writer. DeLillo may be more cynical and more philosophical, but then again, not the better writer.

white noise just didn't click with me at all. it's like delillo compiled all the stuff he thought of while on the toilet and forced it into the dialogue

Your English is qt

Gaddis was a better stylist and had a more naturalistic approach to writing settings and people. Pynchon is the kind of guy who reads Baedekers and comic books for inspiration so his stuff comes off as more cartoonish even if he has vast reserves of historical factoids and other bits of information to draw on.

I guarantee gaddis was smarter than pynchon