Another Story

[davemarc]

This wonderful post forwarded as per Greg Montalbano's instructions....

>Date:         Fri, 12 Jul 96 09:01:02 PDT
>From: Greg Montalbano <OPSGMM at UCCVMA.UCOP.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: Another Story
>To: davemarc <davemarc at panix.com>
>
>On Fri, 12 Jul 1996 11:52:37 -0400 (EDT) you said:
>>At 08:13 AM 7/12/96 PDT, Greg wrote:
>>
>>>Greg Michael Montalbano
>>[snip]
>>>also lived next door to Pynchon's ex-old lady during the mid-seventies;
>>>but that's another story.
>>>
>>Please don't be shy, guy.  Do tell, do tell!
>>
>>Teased 'til it almost hurts,
>>
>>davemarc
>>
>>
>Sorry;  I can never resist a good tease (I know it's wrong, but I'm weak!).
>The actual story is a bit of a letdown.
>
>>From 1973 to 1975, wife & I lived in a little crackerbox near the corner of
>Claremont & Colby in Oakland, CA.  One day, during a conversation about
>literature in general & TRP in particular, my neighbor, one Mary Ann
>Tharaldsen, showed me a paper her roommate had written on TRP's works.
>I spotted an error in one of the opening paragraphs: "Slothrop, in his
>search for V., ..." Upon pointing this out to Ms Tharaldsen, she laughed
>& said she should have caught it herself, HAVING LIVED WITH PYNCHON FOR
>SEVERAL YEARS.  {John Kraft, a listee, has mentioned that Tharaldsen was
>listed in the Cornell directory as Pynchon's "wife".}
>I managed a few cautious questions, but nothing like the full-scale
>interrogation I would give now.  I can offer no excuse, except that at the
>time it seemed right & proper that TRP should be an unknown, unknowable
>recluse. (Also, at the time, drugs WERE in evidence.)
>She did say that he was "rather a strange man";  told of a little stuffed
>toy pig that he carried with him & sometimes spoke to ("At the movies, he
>would sometimes take out the pig & tell it what he thought of the movie.")
>I will comment that she was laughing as she said this;  whether this was
>a fine performance on TRP's part, or evidence of weirdness beyond all
>expectations, I cannot say (or if there's ultimately a difference between
>the two).
>I DID press her for a physical description of him.  She said "Actually, he
>looks a lot like you."  We eventually decided she would paint a portrait
>of TRP with me as model -- the painting was (of course) never completed,
>but in it's incomplete form showed a man with a long face, long sharp
>Protestant nose, thin, dangling moustache, longish hair parted down the
>middle, and rather remarkable dark eyes. I vouch for the accuracy of none
>of this.
>
>Ms Tharaldsen moved away; contact was lost.  After joining the list, I
>found a listing for her in the Oakland phone book & left several messages
>asking for an interview.  I've had no response;  and looking in the
>current Oakland book, I see that she is no longer there.
>
>I wish I could come up with something jucier for you folks;  but as some of
>the listees have pointed out, the reality of TRP could never measure up to
>our collective fantasy images of him -- except, of course, in his work.
>
>