Good Ol' Ruggles. Perhaps only for Pynchon completionists. Certainly there's nothing here that isn't found in one of his brick books. Interesting to see Pynchon become himself over the course of the 5 or so years these were written. His first story "The Slow Rain" being his sloppiest - dragging its feet to nowhere. And "Entropy" annoyingly doing the "hey, I'm an artist. I know art." thing. The final two stories of the collection being the most freshly Pynchonian. Also includes a fantastic introduction where author Pynchon pokes holes in and tries to distance himself from these early stories as anyone would their bleak pubescent high-school poetry.

Un pasaj care pare incredibil de actual și astăzi:

"I don't mean to make light of this. Our common nightmare The Bomb is in there too. It was bad enough in '59 and is much worse now, as the level of danger has continued to grow. There was never anything subliminal about it, then or now. Except for that succesion of the criminally insane who have enjoyed power sine 1945, including the power to do something about it, most of the rest of us poor sheep have always been stuck with simple, standard fear. I think we all have tried to deal with this slow escalation of our helplessness and terror in the few ways open to us, from not thinking about it to going crazy from it. Somewhere on this spectrum of impotence is writing fiction about it - occasionally, as here, offset to a more colorful time and place." - p. 19.

Cred că e o carte care merită citită chiar și dacă doar pentru intoducerea ei. Un scurt eseu de 20 de pagini în care Pynchon, cu o voce incredibil de personală, onestă și dură cu el însuși, își analizează cele cinci povestiri din tinerețe vorbind despre cum și ce a învățat încercând să scrie ficțiune. Subliniind propriile greșeli și punându-le în context.

Pentru mine prima, a doua și ultima povestire au fost cele mai bune. Deși sunt toate destul de atipice pentru Pynchon. Cu o structură lineară și relativ simplă. Însă au și câteva din elementele ce apar mai târziu în romanele sale: momente suprarealiste, o droaie de personaje care interacționează între ele fiind, cumva, într-o continuă mișcare și câteva nume care reapar de prin romanele sale. Din V. și Gravity's Rainbow.

Ultima povestire a fost preferata mea din colecția asta. E vorba despre un grup de copii care lucrează împreună la un exercițiu anual pe care-l fac în vederea unui complot pe care-l pun la cale împotriva adulților din mica comunitate în care locuiesc. În timpul ăsta sunt confruntați cu descoperirea că părinții lor sunt rasiști și persecută un cuplu de oameni de culoare proaspăt venit în comunitatea lor. Cuplu pe al căror copil ei l-au și integrat în gașcă și au început să-i dea câteva din misiunile lor, cu care vor să încurce treburile adulților. M-a dus puțin cu gândul la Huck Finn și Tom Sawyer și felul în care abordau ei persoanele de culoare în lumea rasistă în care creșteau. E ceva înduioșător în felul în care copiii ăștia ai lui Pynchon încearcă să înțeleagă care e, de fapt, problema asta a rasei care-i deranjează pe părinții lor. La un moment dat, un copil care-și construise un radio cu ajutorul căruia asculta, printre altele, ce vorbesc părinții lui în dormitor, îi aude vorbind despre „the race problem“ și crede că e vorba despre o cursă „an actual race“ cum spune el. Chiar grozav.

The stories are a bit up and down, with the first one being the most forgettable, although it has some particularly vivid writing about some very disturbing sights and smells. The second story, Low Lands, is a surreal tale of a man who loses his wife and finds himself in a junkyard with friends and an unexpected visitor, and I quite enjoyed it. Entropy was cool, and I loved the ending, though I feel like most of it flew way over my head. And, Under the Rose will be familiar to readers of V, as it's an early version of what would soon become chapter 3 of that novel.

The real heart of this book, though, and the reason I'm giving an otherwise up-and-down collection of early stories a 5 star rating (along with the introduction, a rare treat of the man himself talking about writing, and just about the 50s and 60s, in general) is the final story, The Secret Integration. This is a young Pynchon dealing with Jim Crow and he pulls it off brilliantly. The best character work by far in the whole collection, these kids seem to me very similar to the Chums of Chance, who wouldn't make their debut for another 40 years in Against the Day. Though maybe I'm just forcing the connection, as I'm an obsessive fan of that novel. Either way, these kids are real in a way that few of the other characters are in the earlier stories. The ending is truly stellar. Top notch Pynchon, IMHO.

If you've been putting this collection off because you think it's only for the hardcore completists, as I had been doing for years now, don't. If you've read a novel or two of his and you're a fan, go for it.

So I picked up this book because I've never read Pynchon and everyone says he's the greatest. I'm torn between starting with this book because the meaning of the title didn't dawn on me until I started it. Slow Learner (Early Stories).

The essay at the beginning of the book was probably the best part about it. He describes the struggles of what it means to be a writer and what it meant to be a writer in the wake of the beats.

You can see glimpses of greatness inbetween poor form and pretension (which he owns up to in the essay) and it makes me hopeful for my own writing. Then the last story "The Secret Integration" is a much clearer story, both in theme and verse.

I liked all the stories (except "Under the Rose". I'll read Ludlum if I want a standard spy story) and I recommend it, if only to see the progression of an artist.