> What a bunch of elitist crap.
> Who is this "average American" you're talking about that expects "the temporal element of be consecutive" ? Guess you don't watch TV. Your description of Pynchon's time shifts and tangents sounds like a description of Lost, or 24,or ER, or West Wing, or daytime soap operas, or reality shows, or Seinfeld, or Dungeons and Dragons, or video games like Zelda or Grand Theft Auto, or daily internet surfing, all of which are intensely inter- and intratextual. In fact, Steve Johnson wrote a whole book on the increasing complexity of plots on TV and in video games and its impact: Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter. Yes, he stacks his deck somewhat with how he defines "smarter," but it's an interesting argument. Also, if popular, bestselling writers like Vonnegut or Adams or, my addition,Stephenson are "niche writers," who qualifies as mainstream?
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There's not a writer working on television, graphic novels or computer games today who wasn't influenced directly or indirectly by Thomas Pynchon.
Modern mainstream writers, to name just a few, are Dan Brown, J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, James Patterson, Dean Koontz, Patricia Cornwell, etc.
Patrick King
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