Pynchon and the postmodern

[jeff severs]

Hartwin Alfred Gebhardt writes...
>RE. Pynchon and postmodernity: I would have to agree with you, but 
>then, I have (like most) my own definition of postmodernity - which 
>would classify Pynchon as 'modern' rather than postmodern. I am 
>sometimes tempted to go as far as saying "the postmodern does not 
>exist", but then I hear the fast-forward squeel of "meme/meme/meme" 
>in my ear, and think better of it.

Could you expand? I'm interested in hearing more about yours and others'
classification schemes for Pynchon: we all know he's the exemplar of
"postmodern fiction" according to the dominant strains of academic writing;
what's the case to be made for Pynchon as "modern"? Modernist? His
postmodern contortions of some modernist tropes -- I'm thinking of his
number on Eliot (Waste Land as film, with the many death has undone as so
many extras) and Faulkner (Major Marvy's castration takes me back to Light
in August) -- are some of my favorite moments in GR. But I obviously don't
have a scheme figured out. Please respond, and, if possible, avoid the
polemic that the terms so readily welcome. Jeff