Your post deserves a longer reply, but I am in a hotel just checking my e-mail and the goings on here. Perhaps when I return to the home office I'll fill this out.

Pynchon's claim to fame is not his difficulty, nor writing without using words with E's or other such nonsense included in your blockquote. Pynchon is challenging, sure, but he is also fun. The topics he explores are vast, like the human experience. His use of the language is brilliant. His syntax resonates in my mind for weeks after finishing one of his works.

I like challenging reads. No, strike that, I need challenging reads. Since I was little I have needed literature like I need food, maybe more than food. Hell, I was reading Melville when I was eight. Were I stuck in a world full of the banality and crappy construction of Rand's works I'd have starved to death a long time ago.