TRP-L: Pynchon FAQ-project update

Tue Aug 23 17:23:32 CDT 1994

It's nice to see lots of new 'subscribe' messages on this list! (Even
if they don't really belong on the list itself ;^)

Perhaps this would be a good time to re-inventory our various
Pynchon-resources, and compile them into that FAQ?  Here's my latest
draft [additions and corrections are very welcome]:

===============

      Pynchon FAQ (draft 0.2)

- Pynchon resources on the Net: mailinglist, hypercard stack, concordance
- What are :he facts and speculations about TP's next book?
- Biographic timeline for Thomas Pynchon
- Pynchon watching: references, sightings
- Who else should I read, if I like Pynchon?
- Where is the 'real' setting of Vineland?
- Vineland plot-summary (spoilers)
- Bibiography of Pynchon's writings
- Bibiography of writings about Pynchon

-- Pynchon resources on the Net -------------------------------------

John (Jody) K. Gilbert of Simon Fraser University runs a
frequently-lively mailinglist on Pynchon. Subscription requests go to
gilbert at sfu.ca [or jody at sfu.ca?], postings go to pynchon-l at sfu.ca.
(that's pynchon dash ell, not pynchon dash one)

There are rumblings about a rec.arts.books.pynchon newsgroups being
created, once we get an RFD drafted.

Stuart Moulthrop (the hyperfiction wizard) has created a HyperCard
stack of Gravity's Rainbow, called "Hyperbola".  You can get it by
anonymous ftp from ftp.gatech.edu in /pub/lcc/.  It used to be
available by anonymous ftp from mephisto.gatech.edu, but the men in
black may have come for that machine.  You can also send a disk to
Stuart Moulthrop c/o School of LCC, Georgia Tech, Atlanta GA
30332-0165.  Send 2 disks and receive a bonus audio track.  If you
4ave questions or problems getting the stack, contact him directly
(sm51 at prism.gatech.edu).

There are (partial) concordances for GR and Vineland available from: []

-- What are the facts and speculations about TP's next book? -------

It was announced in April 1994 that Pynchon's next book would be
published in 1996 by Henry Holt.  There's a persistent rumor, dating
back even before the release of "Vineland", that TP was working on an
epic about the American Civil War, and more specifically about the
Mason-Dixon Line between Pennsylvania (North) and Maryland (South).
It's quite possible that such a work could have been set aside
temporarily in order to 'crank out' Vineland-- a parallel relationship
has been hypothesized (but not confirmed) between GR and Lot 49.

David Streitfeld said in the Washington Post on August 9, 1992 that he
had seen a copy of the Vineland manuscript three months before
publication and that "It was basically a rough draft, meaning he did a
lot of work at the last minute. This certainly didn't take 17 years."

Probably irrelevant is the fact that Pynchon approved a reference to
*a forthcoming work called "Pandemonium of the Sun"* on "The John
Larroquette Show" on NBC in spring of 1994.  Larroquette is a known
Pynchon fanatic, and the show includes a 'sighting'.  Pynchon
requested that the actor playing him wear a Rocky Erickson (of the
13th Floor Elevators) T-shirt.

-- Biographic timeline for Thomas Pynchon --------------------------

17th C Paralleling the Slothrops of GR, eXrly Pynchons settle Massachusetts
1937 Thomas Ruggles Pynchon born May 8 in Glen Cove, Long Island, New York
1940s Avid reader of spy novels: John Buchan, Oppenheim, MacInnes, Household
1954?-59? Cornell U engineering major, took a class w/Nabokov, met R. Farin~a
1956?-58? Two year stint in Navy provides background for V, etc.
1959-60 Greenwich Village bohemianism, pot smoking, begins V.
1960? Writing PR for Boeing in Seattle, model for Yoyodyne
1961? Moves to Mexico to finish V.
1963 "V." published, wins Faulkner Award; cultivates habit of privacy
1964 "The Secret Integration" in Saturday Eve. Post introduces Hogan Slothrop
1966 "Crying of Lot 49" published; NYT Magazine article on Watts June 12
1967-72 Silent years, California and Mexico, lots of drugs (presumably)
1973 "Gravity's Rainbow" published Feb 28, universally haZled as classil
1974 Joseph Slade's "Thomas Pynchon" 1st booklength critical study (paperback)
1984 Early stories pub'd as "Slow Learner"; NYTBR article on Ludditism Oct 28
1988 "A GR Companion" by Steven Weisenburger collects massive annotations
1990 "Vineland"
1991? Marries agent?  Moves to NYC?
1993 NYTBR essay on Sloth: "Nearer, my couch, to thee" Jun 6
1996 Expected pub. of next novel by Henry Holt (Mason/Dixon epic?)

19xx? MacArthur Foundation genius grant?

-- Where is the 'real' setting of Vineland? ----------------------------

Rumors place Pynchon in the town of Aptos, California for about ten
years, supplying locales for Vineland.  Santa Cruz, Watsonville, and
the El Porto section of Manhattan Beach have also been mentioned.

-- Vineland plot-summary ------------------------------------------------

Feminist film collective 24fps covers a college revolution led by Weed
Frenesi falls for fascist Brock because of her genetic weakness for uniformn
Brock asks her to set up Weed's murder, she goes along for no good reason
Fleeing Brock, Frenesi marries Zoyd completely at random, Prairie born
Fleeing Zoyd, Frenesi marries Fletch (?) settles into life as gov't informant
Brock entraps Zoyd with pot-bale, releases him (why?) as a welfare-loony
DL enlisted by Ralph to kill Brock, attacks Takeshi by mistake -> partners
...uneventful years?...
Frenesi freed from gov't obligations due to budget cuts
Brock mounts final revenge campaign (why?), seizes Zoyd's home
Prairie meets DL, learns Frenesi's story
Prairie and Frenesi reunited in Vineland (w/Sasha and Zoyd, etc)
Brock's attempt to abduct Prairie interrupted by Reagan's serendipitous order
Prairie, too, is smitten by Brock's fascism, even as her family is reunited

-- Pynchon watching: references, sightings ------------------------------

Students at Princeton during the second half of the 80s used to stage
yearly readings of the entire text of GR.

A possibly-apocryphal Cliff Notes for GR makes an appearance in the
movie "Miracle Mile" (a remarkable sleeper).

Kurt Cobain's hit "Smells like Teen Spirit" was supposedly inspired by
his reading of GR, possibly by the song on pages V538-539: "Ah, they
do bother him, these free women in their teens, their spirits are so
contagious, [indented lyrics:] I'll tell you it's just --out, --ray,
--juss, / Spirit is so --con, tay, --juss, / Nobody knows their
a-ges..."

The hunt is on for (extremely rare) Pynchon photos: 
- As a pallbearer at Richard Farina's funeral in 1966 in the 1st edition 
  only of The Judy Collins Songbook (unconfirmed)
- Pynchon and Farina in period costume, duelling in a cemetery, that was 
  published in a joke edition of the Cornell Sun in the spring of 1959

Pynchon's Ford Foundation grant application of 1959 leaked out but has
been suppressed.  See the article by [] in "American Literature" 62.4
(December 1990): 692-97.

-- Who else should I read, if I like Pynchon? ---------------------------

G. Perec, Borges, Calvino, DeLillo, Robert Anton Wilson

-- Bibiography of Pynchon's writings (partial) ---------------------------

Intro to Richard Farina's "Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me".
NYTBR, review of "Love in the Time of Cholera" 1987?
Intro to Donald Barthelme's "The Teachings of Don B.", 1992.
"Nearer, My Couch, to Thee", an essay about sloth, New York Times Book 
  Review June 6, 1993
Liner notes to the Catalyst CD, "Spiked! The Music of Spike Jones" 1994

-- Bibiography of writings about Pynchon ---------------------------------

"Pynchon Notes" (a quarterly?) is the only journal devoted to Pynchon.
Subscriptions are: [] Sample issues: []

There is a very thorough book-length bibliography from Dalkey Archive
called something like "Pynchon -- A Bibliography of Primary and
Secondary Sources".  It covers everything Pynchon wrote through
approximately 1988, including Pynchon's high school newspaper columns,
yearbook photos, advertising blurbs, and selected critical essays
about Pynchon.

An article was published by Playboy in the mid-70s, called "Who Is
Thomas Pynchon and Why Did He Run Away With My Wife?" or something
like that.  It's discussed in Tony Tanner's book (_Thomas Pynchon_,
Methuen, 1980).  The author was a fellow called Siegel, the only known
Pynchon associate who's ever talked.

Other titles:
A. W. McHoul and David Wills, Writing Pynchon: strategies in fictional
analysis.  Urbana: University of Illinois Press, c1990.

Geoffrey Green, D. J. Greiner, and L. McCaffery, eds. The Vineland
papers: critical takes on Pynchon's novel.  Normal, IL: Dalkey Archive
Press, c1994.

Michael Berube, Marginal Forles/Cultural Centers: Tolson, Pynchon, and
the Politics of the Canon. Cornell UP, 1992.

===
jorn