Raymond Roussel

[Brian Stonehill Media Studies Pomona College]

Andrew Walser asks if Pynchon resembles Roussel in method.  

As a precursor of OULIPO (Ouvroir de LIterature POtentielle, MaybeLit
Workshop), Roussel used the dictionary as a compositional principle.  He would
write a "straight" text and then substitute three nouns down, e.g., for all
nouns.  The point of _Impressions d'Afrique_, for instance, is that Roussel had
neither gone there nor done the slightest research.  I'd say this is pretty
well the antithesis of our way-beyond-Baedeker boy Tom.

Roussel does have an inheritor in our day, though; check out Walter Abish's
_Alphabetical Africa_.

as long as I'm on:  the Pynchon web page'll be up in about a week...

cheers,  Brian