A guy named Justin St Coe had a really good paper on Pynchon. I can't remember if it was Against the Day or Mason and Dixon but there are two really good essays on both of those novels out there. I think you can learn much from Pynchon's essays, introductions to other books and his Slow Learner introduction. I'm glad the guest brought these up. Also, I believe there is a good bit of veiled autobiography (or maybe it is consubstantial?).
Literary deconstruction is such garbage. Especially when it comes to transcendent art like Pynchon, James Joyce, or David Lynch. The experience is the deeper truth. Trying to compartmentalize and label it destroys its meaning completely. This type of work is like a zen koan. The insights are completely dependent on the state of the observer and should be treated as such.
I feel like it’s you, not the deconstructivists, who are cutting off 90% of the possible experiences of a work and calling them invalid, and who are thus making it harder to enjoy. You can be totally transported by something and still also write papers about it, man.
