Pynchon FAQ

[Jorn Barger]

Jody writes:
> Sounds good to me.  If someone would volunteer to edit & compileit,
> those of us who wish could send in submissions.

I'll give it a shot, although my standards may be different from
others'-- I very much want to avoid padding like boring lists of
critical works.  Everything should be as readable as possible, and as
lively and opinionated as I can get away with.  Here's a timeline I
threw together based on my limited on-hand library:

----
17th C Paralleling the Slothrops of GR, early 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 hailed as classic
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"
1993 NYTBR essay on ???

corections and additions?

jorn

ps- I'll follow this up with my JoyceFAQ, to show the format I prefer
apologies to those who've seen it a trillion times on r.a.b and j-joyce