Recorded History

[David Marc Fischer]

>From a 1/8/90 Newsday article by Tim Page (who successfully asked Thomas
Pynchon (same initials!) to contribute the Spike Jones liner notes):

There is one new game that Pynchon seems to be playing with his readers.
"Gravity's Rainbow" was set in 1945 and several nit-picking critics have
observed that Pynchon, generally so meticulously careful with his details,
included a reference to the 'B' Western movie "The Return of Jack Slade,"
which wasn't made until 1955.  In "Vineland," Pynchon takes no chances.
Every mention of an extant film is followed by its date of production -- e.
g. "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968); "Ghostbusters" (1984) -- and so on.  And
then Pynchon often invents his own films:  Woody Allen in "Young Kissinger"
is a particularly sinister bit of casting.