two notes

[Ed Thompson]

On Sun, 14 Jan 1996, Chris Stolz wrote:

>
> Two things i recently noticed-- are there any comments.
>
> 1)  Pynchon's writing has one enormous pop-cultural hole in it:
> I vcan find no references to professional sports.
>

Vineland has several sports references. The most extended of them is a
sports docu-drama film based on the 1984 NBA Championship Final series
between the Lakers and the Celtics.(p.377-78) Based on Pynchon's exquisite
casting of the film  (Sean Penn as Larry Bird, Paul McCartney as Kevin
McHale, Sidney Poitier as K.C.Jones, Lou Gossett Jr. as Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Douglas as Pat Riley, Jack Nicholson as himself), I
would guess that P's preferred sport is, in fact, basketball. And judging
from the following satiric jab at Boston fans, I'd also venture to guess
that he is, alas, a serious Laker fan.
        "...a story of transcendent courage on the part of the gallant but
doomed L.A. Lakers, as they struggled under hellish and subhuman conditions
at Boston Garden against an unscrupulous foe, hostile referees, and fans
whose behavior might have shamed their mothers had their mothers not been
right there, screaming epithets, ruining Laker free throws, sloshing beer
on their children in moments of high emotion, already...."