GRGR(0): published editions, covers
Curt Gardner
gardner at haas.berkeley.edu
Sat Sep 21 01:15:45 CDT 1996
Chris sez:
> I have the Viking Penguin paperback, published 1987. Background is
> orange and yellow (which is either the bright, glowing sun that veg
> mentioned, or an exploding rocket flash, depending on the mood I'm
> in), over a delicately-drawn London cityscape, in black, which runs
> along the bottom of the entire book.
This sounds like a description of the dust jacket of the original
hardcover in the U.S. Notable, I thought, for the extremely minimal dust
jacket flap copy. On the inside front cover, merely "A screaming comes
across the sky...." and on the back inside cover, "Thomas Pynchon is the
author of V. and The Crying of Lot 49." I believe the published price
was $15.00.
A note on GRGR(1):
Perhaps quite obvious, but as I re-read the first section, I noted the
wonderful symmetry to the final page of the book. After seeing the
rocket launch, Pirate is thinking, "What if it should hit exactly--ahh,
no--for a split second you'd have to feel the very point, with terrible
mass above, strike the top of the skull...." But rather than dwell on
the possibilities, "Pirate hunches his shoulders, bearing his bananas
down the corkscrew ladder." The bananas, to me, are rich, pungent
affirmations of life.
On the final page of the book, the Rocket is in its descent. "And it is
just here, just at this dark and silent frame, that the pointed tip of the
Rocket, falling nearly a mile per second, absolutely and forever without
sound, reaches its last unmeasurable gap above the roof of the old
theatre, the last delta-t." What are we movie-watchers to do?
Sorry if I gave away the ending :)
Curt Gardner
gardner at haas.berkeley.edu
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