What Pynchon Knew

[Mathew Jacobson, Green Mountain Forest Watch]

What Pynchon knew or didn't know when he wrote the text, and what he meant
by it seem highly irrelevant to interpreting the novel.  To assign the
authors guiding hand and full knowledge to the text seems to be the
antithesis of Pynchon's ideas of reading. Yes, yes, this is
self-contradictory.  TO quote Whitman, Do I contradict myself, very well
then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes, as does
Pynchon's text, as does the world.

The reader's search for plot in the novel, seems to be the same quest as
the quest of the characters within the text.  The search for V, or
Imoplex-G, or Der Rocketmensch.  TO assign intention to the "Writer" is
Paranoia.  God was the first conspiracy theory, the intent of the author
the same.

As Pynchon's texts points out agin and agin, people contain more
information than they are aware of, as do messages, ie texts.  Chaos theory
adds information to text, and reading, viewing, experiencing, are active,
not passive.

Our interpretations of experience, and texts, are "stencilized" by our own
viewpoints, informational patterns, etc.  What we "see" exists because we
see it, not because, necessarily, someone intended to put it there.

Pynchon's invisibility as a person, and the anxiety that causes his
readers, including myself, always scrambling for every bit of info, mirrors
his characters quest to find some They, someone to assign responsibility,
blame to, and hopefully recieve redemption from.  Hence the constant
attraction to Fascists.  Its either Paranoia, Fascism, or just one damn
thing after another, after all.

Nice to join the Whole Sick Crew.

Mat Jacobson


Mathew Jacobson
Green Mountain Forest Watch
48 Elliot St *Brattleboro, VT 05301 * (802) 257-4878 * (FAX) 257-8529