Pynchon/Nabokov

[Ronkarate at aol.com]

I've been wondering about the connection between Pynchon and Nabokov. Not
just the personal connection, but the similarity of themes that run through
many of both authors' works. Just starting in on my re-reading of _GR_ and I
hit the following passage (pg. 12, Penguin Books paperback ed.):
"Accompanying will be a phantasmagoria, a real one, rushing toward the
screen, in over the heads of the audiences, on little tracks of an elegant
Victorian cross section resembling the profile of a chess knight conceived
fancifully but not vulgarly so..."
Nabokov's _The Real Life of Sebastian Knight_ immediately sprang to mind, as
well as many other chess metaphors in that author's books. I remember reading
somewhere that many of Nabokov's early works were written under a pseudonym
which I can't recall off the top of my head, but the first name was simply
the initial V. (perhaps V. Sirnin? I don't have the reference handy). Knowing
about Pynchon and Nabokov's student/teacher connection, I couldn't help but
jump to the obvious conclusion. 
Can anyone suggest further reading on the two, or perhaps interject more
thoughts concerning their connection and/or thematic similarities?

Ron Dulin