Thomas Pynchon short FAQ

[JOHN M. KRAFFT]

X-News: miavx1 rec.arts.books:116144
From: tcmay at netcom.com (Timothy C. May)
Subject:Re: Thomas Pynchon short FAQ
Date: Sat, 18 Feb 1995 19:15:18 GMT
Message-ID:<tcmayD47MtI.IpM at netcom.com>

Ebola Meinschafft (waste at neb.com) wrote:
: In article <3i0cff$935 at nic-nac.CSU.net>, jyang3 at jupiter.uucp (June Yang)
: wrote:
: > 3. Didn't Pynchon live in northern California for a while? Wasn't that what
: > Vineland was all about?
: > 
: > A: Yes. For a long time.. possibly as long as ten years, Mr. Pynchon lived in a
: > town called Aptos in northern California (not confirmed and possibly some
: > place right next to Aptos, California. 

: Aptos in Northern California?! I think not. Maybe to some L.A. type whose
: idea of Northern California begins at Santa Barbara. In reality, Aptos is
: located on Rt. 1 southeast of Santa Cruz, in the southern half of the state

Well, I live in Aptos. Yes, rilly. And I've lived in San Diego, Santa
Barbara, and the Bay Area.

Regardless of what some "topo map books" say, Santa Cruz is an
archetypal Northern California town, with redwood trees galore, hot
tubs, granola-munching hippies, etc.

I have no interest in quibbling over definitions of where the midpoint
of the state is, but can tell you all that this area is considered
Northern California. Tell me, do any of you think of Carmel and Big
Sur as being in _Southern_ California? Well, they are well south of
where I am now. 

Many people consider Point Conception, about 30 miles north of Santa
Barbara, and the location of Vandenberg Air Force Base, to be the
rough dividing line between the two halves. Climate-wise, that's
mostly true. Others push the boundary as far south as the Tehachapi Mountains.

: (check out the DeLorme topo map books: the dividing line between North and
: South is just north of Santa Cruz). Vineland, in contrast, is set in the

Bear in mind that that map division was based on _publisher_
convenience! The "northern" part, culturally and climate-wise, is more
than half of the state....nothing unexpected about an asymmetry like that.

: "real" Northern California, in fictional Vineland County, located on the
: coast between Humboldt and Mendocino counties. Pynchon's knowledge of the
: area and its people suggests that his Northern California digs are/were
: much farther north than Aptos. I would guess somewhere between Laytonville
: (known as "Loraxville" for banning Dr. Seuss from its schools for his
: "unfair" portrayal of the logging industry) and Garberville.

Parts of "Vineland" are clearly based on locales in Humboldt County,
but parts are also clearly based on locales in Santa Cruz and Monterey
Counties. In fact, I can pretty much see the locales within a couple
of miles of where I now live. 

In any case, Santa Cruz is not in "Southern California."

--Tim May
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