Questions

[Ebiri1 at aol.com]

Hey,

First off, lemme say that I don't have any qualms about finding all this
stuff about TRP.  I think it seems that the majority of those on this list
are fairly responsible readers, academics, students, and generally people who
ought to know better than to hear something and then plaster the doors of
Broadway with this info, trying to draw the Guinea Worm out of its lair.  I
personally find it fascinating.  To be fair, we are being given an
opportunity to find out about the habits and character of one of the major
literary artists of this century -- and such curiosity has only been fueled
by his reclusiveness.  (Alas, perhaps, but look at the time in which we live.
 This kind of stuff, I'm afraid, is a part of us now.  One cannot deny one's
date.)

And I sense very little bitterness or hostility coming from Jules and/or
Chrissie.  In fact, I'm surprised by the very lack of such negative energy.

So, anyway, the questions I'd like to see discussed:

Did you ever get any sense of any events/places/times in TRP's life that
seemed to have shaped him or his writing, or even, his *deciding* to write?
 Did he ever talk about such things?  (For example, his stint in the Navy...)
 I have no idea if this question is too vague or unanswerable, reality being
what it is.

Do you know anything more about his work habits?  We've mentioned coffee and
nights, but for instance, does he prepare for a book before writing it, or
does he just write?  How much research does he do?  Does he have any
routines, etc. that he practices when writing?  (Sorry, writer's routines
have always fascinated me...and you may not be in a position to answer this
question either, but what the heck.)

And an addendum to the question about how Pynchon's characters may have been
modelled after people he knew:  It seems more likely (to me, anyway) that he
borrowed (sorry, *took*) aspects of people he knew and threw them together
for his various characters.  So, I'd doubt that any one character actually
corresponds to one person, but that certain characteristics may correspond to
several different people.  Perhaps, then, this is just a rephrasing of that
previous question.

Anyway, I may think of some better ones as I read on, but for now, I'd love
to know about anything, really.  Thanks a lot.

--Bilge Ebiri