Cornel

[chris sweet]

davemarc wrote:
> 
> At 06:15 PM 5/28/96 -0700, you wrote:
> >
> >I found out from a friend that her mother was at Cornel with our boy and
> >attended a writing class with him and Ferina. I thought, wow, I can ask her
> >lots of questions about TRP. But then I started to think about my
> >questions and found none of them seemed worthwhile asking. They didn't
> >seem to require an answer.
> >
> >If TRP really wants his life private, I guess I'll not intrude. It's like
> >finding a diary and deciding not to read it.
> >
> >But out of curiosity, what would people out there want to know from his
> >Cornel days? Anything at all?
> >
> Absolutely.  I'd like to know anything at all.
> 
> davemarc

Theres a pamphlet that can be bought in the Ithaca area called
"A Literary Walking Tour Of Ithaca." Among the Pynchon references,
which are only a few, there is a house he supposedly lived at. Its
at the top of E. Buffalo St. If you have ever been to Cornell and
approached from the south this is probably a street that you took.
The incline grows steadily for about 15 miles as you approach Ithaca
and then you seem to just fall off the earth as its a very steep
decline for about 2 miles into the center of Ithaca. As soon as you hit
the center of town its a very steep incline up again to get to the
'collegetown'/Cornell part. So steep, in fact, that with 3 people in my
car I almost thought I wouldn't make it. The supposed Pynchon house,
if my memory doesn't fail me, is the second from the top on the left.
I think it was green the last time I was there a couple of years ago.
	There is another house mentioned where Farina and Pynchon put a
roof on a garage. The garage collapsed a few years later.
	The bar/restaurant mentioned in "Been Down So Long....", whose
fictional and real names I have forgotten, is still there. The one time
I was in I found it kinda boring. 

The pamphelt also mentions dozens of other Ithaca literary points of interest
involving everyone from Vonnegut to Morrison to Nabokov. If you can track one
down its a pretty fun way to spend a day.

chris