Interview with Chrissie

[Jules Siegel]

Penny Padgett wrote:

> I look forward to hearing from Chrissie as well.

Jules: "I have Chrissie here with me. Unfortunately I inadvertently
erased your first query, so I'll try to paraphrase it from memory. How
do you feel about Pynchon's privacy needs?" 

He didn't want people to know that his family was poor and so was he.
They were aristocrats in Oyster Bay, but they didn't have any money and
I feel that his mother wanted people to think they were rich anyway. In
those days -- the Fifties-- it was important for upper class people to
have money as well as being socially upper crust. But now, in the
Nineties, everything has changed. Now movie stars are making money and
they're not from the upper classes and it's not as important. It's more
important to be self-made. And he is. So he's holding on to something
for no good reason.

Jules: "Well, what about Penny's point about cooperating in maintaining
his privacy?"

The stuff I'm revealing is pretty tame. It's universal. He doesn't
realize that the stuff he gets upset about isn't scandalous. It's
generic. I don't know any family in that class that doesn't have the
same problems. They suffer from reverse discrimination because of their
last names. It doesn't help them. It goes against them. 

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

Because he doesn't have time to write and concentrate on the public eye
at the same time. He writes at night and he's very tired during the day
and he's never been very physically strong. His health was always poor
when I knew him.

The press makes money off people. They can sell more copies if they
write about him because he's mysterious. He feels they're making money
off him as a kind of free lunch. The press is very toxic. There are so
many scam artists in the newspaper racket. They make up lies about your
private life. He's trying to protect themselves from them.

It's a license to steal money, writing those books. He doesn't want
anyone interfering, especially the dumb, annoying people that are out
there in the world.

> (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.")

If you know someone who has an IQ of a certain level, a word to the wise
is sufficient. If you're going to hang out with someone who's really
smart, you're going to be smart, too, and you're going to be a quick
study. You're going to pick up on the fact that he doesn't want anyone
to know anything, period. 

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

He can write about his friends and if no one knows who they are they
won't be able to analyze this. it's easier to keep track of your
characters if you base them on your friends. It's a convenient way to
write. He doesn't want people to know that he's doing this.

-- 
Jules Siegel Website: http://www.caribe.net.mx/siegel/jsiegel.htm
Mail: Apdo. 1764 Cancun QR 77501 Mexico
Street: Green 16 Paseo Pok-Ta-Pok Zona Hotelera Cancun QR 77500 Mexico
Tel: 011-52-98 87-49-18 Fax 87-49-13 E-mail: jsiegel at mail.caribe.net.mx