On-line interview with Chrissie Jolly

[Jules Siegel]

Penny Padgett wrote:
 
> Hello Jules,

> Many thanks for your response.  I look forward to hearing from Chrissie as well.  (May > I assume that her responses will be posted to the list at large?)

Of course. She's staying about two miles from here and I don't see her
every day, as she's here mostly to see our daughter Faera, 25, who lives
here and is in her second year of psychoanalytic training as well as
running her own sales development office.
Chrissie agreed enthusiastically to the interview and I am going to try
to shut up after this response and let her talk instead. 

> I'm interested in your argument that Pynchon makes a big deal about his privacy in > order to garner publicity.  Publicity may be an agreeable side effect of his efforts > to guard his privacy, but I can't believe that it's the only reason he does it.

I'm not saying that. See below.

>After all, going to such lengths is a lot of work, no?

Not in terms of the pay-off. See below

> What I was really interested in hearing about is (a) *why* is Pynchon
> so hell-bent on staying out of the public eye?

I think he's a fearful person who also has secrets he doesn't want
anyone to stumble across. He once said something to me to the effect
that paranoids aren't paranoid by nature, but they do things that make
them paranoid. I remember him as a good Catholic boy who went to Mass,
so maybe all he's talking about are his sins. He had very severe
orthodontic problems that undoubtedly inspired his psychodontics satire
in V. When I knew him his molars were grotesquely malformed and his
front teeth were too large for his jaw, giving him a chipmunk face. I
think the combination of his Catholic upbringing and his dental problems
made him fearful of facing new people.

Creating a Scarlet Pimpernel persona would seem to compensate for the
lack of seriousness of the chipmunk effect. We all want dignity. Being
mysterious attracts attention in a James Bond sort of way without
seeming to grovel for it.

Despite this, I always thought Tom was quite handsome, until he wrote me
a letter commenting on his teeth and I began to realize how this all
must have felt from the inside out. I've always been reluctant to write
about this, because I didn't want to hurt him, but sometimes I think
that maybe it might help him, too.

On his father's side, his heritage is 100% New England, and I think this
created other inhibitions about exposure. He doesn't want to be judged
or ridiculed, and I have to say I don't blame him. I am quite reluctant
to be interviewed except on my own terms and I had good reason to regret
the exposure I once eagerly welcomed when I was in the public eye.
People are crazy. There's more than one Charles Manson out there. This
past thirty years have certainly confirmed Tom's fears. People who
smoked grass or took other illegal drugs had a lot to think about,
didn't we? There was always the fear of the knock on the door.

I also think that the obsession serves his need for publicity very well.
If he's a writer he's got to be in it for the fame as well as the money,
right? So he's turned his obsession into a great gimmick. He has added
economic value to his persona by making it hard to get. This is very
close to what psychoanalysts call the highly compensated neurosis. I'm
sure he didn't plan this out. He does know how to make the most of it.

> (b)  To what extent does this desire of his impinge on his friends?  Are they, in effect, sworn to secrecy?  ("Those who know don't tell, and those who tell don't know.")

I never knew any of his friends. The secrecy never affected me at all. I
wrote about him and his work on a couple of occasions when I felt like
it and he never complained. He cut me off during his scene with
Chrissie, not after I wrote the profile.

> (c)  What, if anything, does it say about his art?

The over-elaboration of detail is often an expression of acute anxiety.
One sees this when over-dosing on amphetamine, which creates a similar
effect, including the paranoia, I think because it is similar to
adrenaline, which produces similar symptoms. The acutely anxious person
produces many stress hormones as part of the attempt to mediate the pain
by performing miracles. Overstimulation leads to injudicious actions,
too. When you crash, you experience a profound paranoid depression as
you review your errors rather than your triumphs. I see this tone of
deep regret in much of his work. His story "Entropy," is as much about
regret and depression as it is about physics. So is Gravity's Rainbow,
from the little of it I skimmed.
 
> >   I personally feel that privacy is an illusion of the ego and a function
> >   of industrialism and capitalism. Historically, it's a very late arrival
> >   on the human scene, and, I think, often pernicious.

> Also interesting.  In true paranoid style, I fear that your "completely
> transparent" scenario may arrive sooner rather than later.

Don't be afraid. It already has pretty much for me and it is good for
the most part, not bad. Do you want telepathy and oneness with the
universe, or do you want a police state? That's really the choice. I,
too, hate the thought of my stupid actions of the past being exposed to
public ridicule. Every once in a while, I remember another moronic
moment that I wish I could just erase. Sometimes I tell them to Anita
(my beautiful wife) and she laughs and I feel a rush of
self-forgiveness.

J. P. Donleavy once said, "Writing is turning your worst moments into
money." I think our job is to create a world in which it is possible for
people to enjoy living transparently. We have to eliminate these silly
tabus and absurd laws. It's really all about poo-poo and pee-pee and
titty--but our need for dignity (and familial and economic competition
in what we are taught is a zero-sum universe) leads us into many
regrettable and sometimes ugly situations. We need to cultivate bravery
and tolerance. If we have an enemy, it is shame itself, the most
powerful weapon of control and repression.

Please tell me a little about yourself, when you have a chance, and/or
send me a picture. I like to be able to visualize the person with whom
I'm communicating. This also applies to others who write to me. 
 
As always,
Jules

-- 
Jules Siegel Website: http://www.caribe.net.mx/siegel/jsiegel.htm
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