(auto)biography

[Jonathan Shainin]

>From: RR.TFCNY at mail.fdncenter.org (RICHARD ROMEO)
>
> Anyone think he'll write an autobiography before he leaves this humble
> planet of ours or let someone into his inner sanctum and write a
> definitive bio (or would it be?).

My real question, in response to the (auto)biography, is how much more
insight would we be able to draw into the works, having known for certain
facts about his life.  We can say now, for example, that the ancestry of
Tyrone in GR (about p. 26) mirrors Pynchon's own.  There's something in V.
(excuse my poor memory) which mentions records destroyed in an explosion,
following Winston's finding that Pynchon's navy records were destroyed in a
fire in a St. Louis navy yard.  I've been spending the blizzard days off
school reading Ellman's massive Joyce bio, and it's filled with many of
those telling "aha!" moments; how many might an actual TRP biography turn
up?

jonathan.