Twayne in Vain

Abstract

As Anglo-American literary criticism approaches the end of the millennium, its apparatus of major authorship has become vast and manifold–ranging from 100-level course listings and Ph.D. exam requirements to the volumes of Cliffs Notes, Twentieth-Century Views, Chelsea House reprints and Twayne books produced every year to meet a demand whose source seems uncertain at best. One presumes, of course, that Pynchon's work would not keep accumulating reader's guides unless it were continuing to draw interest from students, teachers and laypersons, and in this sense it is good to see the critical wheels turning out the usual Pynchon byproducts. On the other hand, since most Pynchon readers are aware of Pynchon's indifference to literary criticism and his loathing of bureaucracies, we tend to shudder at the thought that Gravity's Rainbow will ever be popular enough to merit its own volume of Cliffs Notes.