Teaching Pynchon -- in High School!

[WKLJAZZ at aol.com]

I first read Pynchon in a seminar at Williams College (in 1981, I think) on
"Nabokov and Pynchon."  We read PNIN, LOLITA, LOT 49, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW and
several short stories by each author.  Hook line and sinker!

I now teach American literature in a small private high school, and, two
years ago, I taught LOT 49 to four "honors" students as a part of a seminar
on "literary detective novels."  (We also read LEVIATHAN by Paul Auster,
WHITE NOISE by Don Delillo, Raymond Chandler's THE BIG SLEEP and some Poe.)
 Three of the four students (16 to 17 year-olds) were confused and even sort
of pissed-off at being denied "answers" and being left in uncertainty.  The
other guy, however, had read V., VINELAND and most of GR before he hit his
senior year of high school.  He wrote a paper about Dr. Hilarious that
involved independent research in several psychiatry books, leading him to see
that the effect of LOT 49 on the reader was arguably similar to the effect of
certain psychoses or neuroses exhibited by Hilarious in the book.

In short, while it was plain that Pynchon was largely wasted on most of those
kids, for the fourth student TRP's work was an incredible skeleton key that
unlocked dozens of doors and will undoubtedly continue to do so.  (For
example, he read Salman Rushdie's MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN this past spring -- and
he wouldn't let up until I had read it too.)  Goofy as it was in some ways,
I'm glad I overreached so that this one guy's life could suddenly widen.

[Hey -- if the people on this list make the tapes of GR, should I play in my
kids' (5 and 1 y.o.) bedroom at night in the hope that it will sink in
subliminally?? <grin>]

-- Will Layman