Pynchon as horndog

[Orlowsky at aol.com]

A friend sent me this story the other day.  It seems totally implausible --
hard to believe Pynchon would cash in on his celebrity to pick up a woman off
the street.  On the other hand, whoever said hormones were rational?

"So last night we had a dinner party and among the guests was one Mike the
Psychiatrist, an all-around great guy and husband of my friend Katherine.
We're babbling about internet crap, and I mention the Pynchon search and he
tells me this story:

My old girlfriend Meg met Pynchon. She was going to meet someone and was
dragging a suitcase, either down the street or into a bar, and Pynchon came
up to her and insisted on buying her a drink. She'd heard of him, but didn't
believe it was him, for some reason she agreed to the drink anyway. They had
a drink or two, and something happened at some point in the conversation
where she realized it was him. She didn't know he had a rep for being so
elusive, so she asked him a lot about himself, etc. He mainly talked about
his work. The only quote Mike remembers (this was YEARS ago, when they were
at Columbia) was that Pynchon said to Meg: "It's V  period. Not V! Damnit! V
PERIOD! "-railing, not at her, but at stupid reviewers and readers, I guess. 
Not much of a tale, but quite a bit of info for one dinner party. 
It's V, damnit,period."

Guess if you're going to be a recluse, you have to reconcile yourself to the
possibility that losers will claim to be you in order to get laid.

Bob