yet another "alias Thomas Pynchon" hoax!

[JOEYDEVIVRE at delphi.com]

the perils of anonymity -
this week the Anderson Valley Advertiser, an excellent
small-town newspaper in Northern California, is promoting
the fantasy that one of their regular letter-writers
back in the mid-1980's, who signed his or her letters
"Wanda Tinasky", was in reality, guess who?
In support of this they have printed the full text of 
one of Wanda's letters from 1985, which , alas, shows
*no* Pynchonian traits at all.  The supporting evidence
is that in 1986 Wanda mentioned having a novel in process,
and that the handwritten (hand-printed) corrections of
typos on the letters look similar to a sample of Pynchon's
handwriting.  
Well, it's a simple case of wishful thinking, but there's
one instructive aspect to the fantasy; the editors emphasize
that the letters are *not* in the style of Gravity's Rainbow,
Lot 49, or V, but rather are in the style of Vineland --
meaning, I guess, that there's nothing clever, amusing,
or "hard to understand" about them.  Clearly, Vineland
has lowered the hurdles of what it takes to pass for Pynchon.