Comments on: And That Happened: Thursday's Scores and Highlights

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 18:01:14 +0000

Sorry Mo, gotta disagree. That paperweight was a premier example of laboring mightily to birth a mouse. Pynchon's worst - Vineland - is as bad as any worst book by anyone. It's right down there with Lotte in Weimar, Pierre or the Ambiguities, Lucy Gayheart and all of James Fenimore Cooper besides Last of the Mohicans. I'll take Luthor, Dr. Doom or Braniac over Brock Vond any day. And what made it even worse was how long Pynchon made us wait for that pile of sludge (although in all fairness he did give us Professor Irwin Corey at the National Book Award dinner during that interregnum). Mason and Dixon was a mighty act of redemption, though. I often read it as a double feature with The Sot Weed Factor. I think Salman Rushdie should just concentrate on finishing his own next opus, Buddha, You Fat Bastard, and make it available on Kindle as soon as he can. . Heading out to the Feesh home opener. Rain is predicted. Figures, don't it?

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 17:59:39 +0000

Sorry Mo, gotta disagree. That paperweight was a premier example of laboring mightily to birth a mouse. Pynchon's worst - Vineland - is as bad as any worst book by anyone. It's right down there with Lotte in Weimar, Pierre or the Ambiguities and all of James Fenimore Cooper besides Last of the Mohicans. I'll take Luthor, Dr. Doom or Braniac over Brock Vond any day. And what made it even worse was how long Pynchon made us wait for that pile of sludge (although in all fairness he did give us Professor Irwin Corey at the National Book Award dinner during that interregnum). Mason and Dixon was a mighty act of redemption, though. I often read it as a double feature with The Sot Weed Factor. I think Salman Rushdie should just concentrate on finishing his own next opus, Buddha, You Fat Bastard, and male it available on Kindle as soon as he can. . Heading out to the Feesh home opener. Rain is predicted. Figures, don't it?

By: Ace

Ace — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 15:25:45 +0000

Oh, you’re going to drag the French realists into this now? I’ll take good old American post-modern meta-fiction over French realism any day. Balzac wrote what, 100 novels? And forgive me if I’m overlooking something, becasue I haven’t read them all, but did Balzac even once get around to writing a really awesome octopus fight scene? Did Pere Goriot ever take a mind-altering, phantasmagoric journey down a toilet bowl? I thought not.

By: Moses Green

Moses Green — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 15:20:24 +0000

Salman Rushdie gave Vineland a warm review, saying it didn’t deserve all of the criticisms hurled its way. It certainly has its fair share of Nixonian paranoia and Brock Vond is a worth villain.
Basically I’ll take Pynchon’s worst against most writers’ best.

By: APBA Guy

APBA Guy — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:58:54 +0000

Amateurs. Compare and contrast “Le Rouge et le Noir” with “Splendeurs et Miseres de Courtesans.” At least we can discuss some writers with insight into the human condition, not merely some self-conscious, grasping literary excess. And maybe we should take it over to Buster’s blog anyway, for some snark-filled refereeing.
Aside from that, the beloved A’s are 3-1. Of course, this is the AL equivalent of the Gigantes being 3-0, in that the opponent has more to do with the record than the winning team.
While I take great pleasure in watching the A’s win, it’s hard to imagine this continuing except that they play the Mariners again next week. We will get a better read this weekend against the Angels, another AL West team with questions to answer. Is it possible the AL West will have 4 teams finish below .500?
The rumors are swirling that Boston will make a grab for Kurt Suzuki and move V Mart to DH and 1B. After watching the catching in the Boston/Yankees games I can believe that the Red Sox will need a defensive upgrade. Kurt certainly got practice in the Seattle series, as the Mariners were relentless in running attempts when they did get men on base. Too bad they couldn’t hit when the runners reached scoring position.
If Boston pulls off that trade I wonder how Billy Beane will try to spin it?
“We couldn’t afford Suzuki. He’s making $ 10k above minimum.” or
“We got 3 prospects from Boston who we’ll trade away just as they are about to blossom for 3 more prospects.”
Not that I miss Dana Eveland or Greg Smith, but I do miss Carlos Gonzalez.

By: Ace

Ace — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 11:50:25 +0000

You’re right, Vineland certainly isn’t terrible. We’re talking about Pynchon here, and even his worst is still pretty damn excellent. I just don’t think it comes anywhere near Gravity’s Rainbow or Mason & Dixon (my personal favorite). M&D seems to be severely underrated; it has all the zany humor, paranoid conspiracies, and historical arcana we’ve come to love and expect from Pynchon, plus a genuinely moving human story (which is very rare for him). And I’m totally with you on Against the Day. “Meh” is not what you want to feel after 1000 pages. Definitely had its moments though, and I did love the Chums of Chance. All that stilted and corny wild west dialogue, not so much.

By: Jimmy P

Jimmy P — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 11:24:14 +0000

In the Sox-Indians game, you could have seen Juan Pierre as the DH. That’s pretty special.

By: Jick

Jick — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 11:12:21 +0000

Vineland wasn’t bad at all. I once heard it described as 1984 meets The Big Lebowski, and even if the second half wasn’t as funny as the first, I can dig it.
Against the Day, though, that’s one I would have liked better if I’d hated it. Instead it was merely okay, and if I’m reading a >1000 page book I need it to provoke a bigger reaction, even a negative one.

By: Ace

Ace — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 10:57:50 +0000

Oh no, there was a Pynchon debate and I missed it?! Let’s get that going again.
.
Yankees fans are so uneducated, they probably thought Vineland was Pynchon’s finest novel. (Go Sox!!!)

By: Edward Jensen

Edward Jensen — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 10:19:57 +0000

Craig,
Yet another reference to the Simers’ article? What happened to funny Craig? The problem is not Simers. The problem is you. You did not read the article. You did not do your job, yet for the second day, you’re still whining.
Let’s clean this up a little. You can’t have it both ways.

By: Charles Gates

Charles Gates — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 09:26:36 +0000

Thanks. But if you YouTube the video for Stanky Leg, I’m pretty sure I’ll lose all of the internet points I may have just won. I’d paste the link here, but I think that would qualify as blog pollution.

By: Moses Green

Moses Green — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:40:09 +0000

So we have Charles here paraphrasing an imitation of Jim Palmer, while name-checking the Old Gator. Here is an example of meta (cubed) commentary that makes Circling My Hard Balls the greatest corporate baseball blog in the history of corporate baseball blogs. Well, that and ATH. And the Gator. Whenever you can start a sentence to your baby sister “So I was having this debate the other day on the comment board of a baseball blog on the relative merits of the works of Thomas Pynchon …” or “This fella on my new favorite baseball blog related a great Jorge Luis Borges story the other day…” well that’s really very confusing to a lot of people. In a good way.

By: Craig Calcaterra

Craig Calcaterra — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:39:15 +0000

I never found Gonzalez all that frustrating. I haven’t looked it up, but me recollection of him in Atlanta was that he was fairly efficient. Maybe I’m wrong about that, but he never bothered me in that regard. Not sure what his problem has been these first couple of outings.
I forget his name, but the O’s pinch-commenter was a beat writer. And I think he’s right about young pitchers struggling. The first time I ever saw Sidney Ponson pitch for the Orioles he had a good game and I remember telling someone next to me in the bar I was at watching the game that I thought he was going to be pretty good. Then you see how the guy deals with adversity . . .
“in Heineken”

By: Charles Gates

Charles Gates — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:24:38 +0000

Craig, how did you handle watching Mike Gonzalez last year? He's probably the most inefficient pitcher this side of the Mississippi. His stanky leg initiated motion threw 26 pitches in the 9th last night, of which 12 were strikes. 2 walks and one hit, intermingled with 2 strike outs, loaded the bases before a fairly hard hit ball to Markakis ended the threat, yielding him the all important S.
On a side note, the O's announcers were saying things about Matusz (you transposed the U and the S up top) like, 'If Jim Palmer were here (Palmer is the normal color guy, but was home due to some laryngitis, though I bet Ol' Gator would blame it on Vibro vulnificus), he'd say 'You learn more about a young pitcher on days like this, where he battles through it without his best stuff, than you do when he pitches seven shutout innings.'' I'd have to say there's at least some truth to that statement.