farina

[Paul DiFilippo]

Today in a second-hand bookstore I picked up a volume which to
the best of my recall has never been mentioned on the list.  It's
a posthumous collection of Richard Farina's stories, essays and 
poems entitled _Long Time Coming and A Long Time Gone_.  Apparently
originally a Random House hardcover, my edition is a 95 cents Dell
paperback first edition from 1970.
The book has an intro by Joan Baez and introductory matter to each
piece by wife Mimi.  I've sampled the non fiction, and hereby
report two findings:
1)  In "The Writer as Cameraman", Farina uses Plastic Man as an icon
and Mimi confirms that the character was important to him.
2)  More excitingly, "The Monterey Fair," originally published in
_Mademoiselle_ is the tale of how Farina and friends killed a little
time just prior to his wedding and features TRP as a character!!!
TRP has no dialogue in the memoir, which details how the gang went to
a country fair and ended up in a confrontation with the John Birch
society, but he does appear in the following sentences:
a) "Thomas Pynchon, the best man, had come from Mexico City, after
dodging a team of _Life_ photographers who would not tolerate his
request for privacy.  The mysteries implicit in _V_ [sic, no period],
his novel, were causing the literary public to demand counterparts
in his day-to-day life."
b)  "Pynchon interrupted his _Scientific American reading..." in 
order to go to the fair.
c) "We moved into the midway and bought tacos and beer.  Pynchon
coming to life with the tacos, not having had Mexican food in 
a couple of weeks..."
d)  "Pynchon was hunching his shoulders as if for protection from
an overhead blow."  [When confronted with the Birchers.]
e)  "Pynchon had borrowed my old red hunting jacket..." [to wear].
f)  "Pynchon made a grunting sound."  [In reaction to a stupidity
uttered by a Bircher.]
So there you have it.  Just look for a guy wearing a red jacket,
eating tacos, hunching over and grunting like Pig Bodine, and 
you've met Pynchon!

--
Paul Di Filippo/2 Poplar St/Providence, RI 02906/401-751-0139
"I _am_ Providence."  H. P. Lovecraft
"A heart that hurts is a heart that works." Juliana Hatfield