Farina; Film Rights

[Orlowsky at aol.com]

Some comments on Farina and on film rights to Pynchon's books:

Regarding Richard Farina, you'll find an interesting biographical article
about him in the April 28, 1977 issue of the Soho Weekly News, "The Ghost of
Richard Farina" by John Calvin Batchelor, pp. 19-22, 26-27.  Unfortunately
for your research project, the article states that Farina's alleged
experiences with the IRA and in revolutionary Cuba were just a figment of
Farina's overactive imagination.  Of course, the author of the article is the
same guy who told us with great sincerity that Pynchon is actually J.D.
Salinger, so his research abilities can't be entirely trusted.  Nevertheless,
in this article he quotes conversations with people who knew Farina, so he
seems to have done his research on Farina.

For an interesting account of Farina's and Pynchon's encounter with the John
Birch Society, read Farina's "The Monterey Fair" in his Long Time Coming and
A Long Time Gone.

The Cornell Daily Sun of May 5, 1978 (pp. 31, 38) contains a reminiscence by
Baxter Hathaway about Pynchon and Farina and other writers at Cornell:
"Hathaway Recalls Cornell Writers of the '50s."  In yet another obscure
publication, Earl Ganz recalls his acquaintance with Pynchon at Cornell and
his extreme dislike for Farina in "Pynchon in Hiding," Plum 2, 1980, pp.
5-20.

That same article also recalls Ganz's attempt to write a screenplay of V.
around the time Gravity's Rainbow was published.  He quotes Candida Donadio
as expressing interest in seeing a script and remarking that someone had
taken a film option on V. when it first came out, but that it had lapsed
because of inability to get a screenplay written.  Since then, I also recall
something about film rights NOT being available for Vineland but can't
remember where I heard it.  Perhaps Pynchon, the film buff, has changed his
mind about letting someone film his own works.  Then again, who in their
right mind would try to make a film of one of his books anyway? And who could
do it justice?  If Robert Altman makes a successful movie of Angels in
America, perhaps he could be the one to try.

Bob