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<h1 id="mining-the-backlist">Mining the Backlist</h1>
<ul class="post-metadata">
<li><time datetime="2002-06-20">20 June 2002</time></li>
<li><a href="/tags/novels/" class="post-tag">novels</a></li>
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<p>Im one of those folks whose first introduction to Richard Powers was <a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=0IBSHWP639&amp;isbn=0060976926">Galatea 2.2</a>, which I suppose is the place that a lot of people start with him. Like <a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=0IBSHWP639&amp;isbn=0140077022">White Noise</a> is the place to start reading DeLillo, and <a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=0IBSHWP639&amp;isbn=0060931671">The Crying of Lot 49</a> is the place to start reading Pynchon. Some might argue that the drawing criterion is the relative brevity of these entry texts, but I think theres something more to it than just brevity — its the entire project in miniature. Once youve read <em>COL49,</em> you know something about what Pynchons up to that makes it possible to take on <a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=0IBSHWP639&amp;isbn=0140188592">Gravitys Rainbow</a>. Similarly DeLillo: reading <em>White Noise</em> makes a later reading of <a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=0IBSHWP639&amp;isbn=0684842696">Underworld</a> possible.</p>
<p>So with Powers. But theres this added hitch with <em>Galatea,</em> in that the novel purports to recount his publishing history up to that point, following a character named “Richard S. Powers” through his remembrances of the composition of his earlier novels. Does starting with <em>Galatea</em> inevitably ruin — or maybe thats too harsh a word; maybe I just mean “color” — the reading of the previous texts?</p>
<p>I guess I was always afraid that it would, because I first read <em>Galatea</em> about four or five years ago, and never read any other Powers. Which is strange for me, as I tend to go on author-binges when I read something I love, and I loved <em>Galatea.</em></p>
<p>So over the last month, Ive begun making up for lost time, reading the Powers <em>oeuvre</em> in chronological sequence. Ive finished <a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=0IBSHWP639&amp;isbn=0060975091">Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance</a>, which, as an example of a first novel, so intimidated me that I may never make another stab at the form. Also <a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=0IBSHWP639&amp;isbn=0060977086">Prisoners Dilemma</a> (which, while deeply moving, Im relieved to say is my least favorite so far) and <a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=0IBSHWP639&amp;isbn=0060975008">The Gold Bug Variations</a>. About which I feel unqualified to say anything except wow.</p>
<p>Im now on <a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=0IBSHWP639&amp;isbn=006097611X">Operation Wandering Soul</a>, the completion of which will take me back up to my starting point. Do I re-read <em>Galatea</em> then? I began this reading of the Powers backlist with a certain kind of “knowledge” about what these novels were up to — but now, with the novels themselves under my belt, will my sense of that prior “knowledge” change? Would that change further readings of the earlier books?</p>
<p>You gotta love a novel sequence with its own built-in recursive loop.</p>
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