Pynchon on the web

[Peter Giordano]

I found the following from an article in The Straits Times (Singapore)
interesting in light of some of the issues I've been discussing - I offer
i=only some quotes but the full article is available


HEADLINE: A writer as elusive as his plots (August 2, 1997)

THOMAS PYNCHON is a writer of furious, quasi -surreal imagination. His
appetite for
information of all kinds is immense. He is paranoid about "Control"
(political, economic,
sexual, etc). Mason & Dixon, published this year, is his second Big Book, a
grand and epic
production. [...]
People known to have put him up in New York while he was writing V. clammed
up the
moment his name was mentioned. Still, he was not too famous as yet.
[...]
Malignant conspiracies are tracked by a paranoia that historically was
never more justified.
The vision has deepened of a large -scale technocratic assault on nature.
[...]
Pynchon was awarded the distinguished Howells Medal for this book [GR]. He
wrote to the
committee, who did not know what he looked like either: "I don't want it
... I know I should
behave with more class but there appears to be only one way to say no, and
that's no. "

Despite sites on the World Wide Web, we know nothing more about him today.
And since
he is unlikely to show himself, all we can do is read the books.

Peter Giordano
Williams College
Williamstown, MA