GRGR(11) - Last section of group read of Pt 1

[Alan Westrope]

On Thu, 20 Feb 1997, andrew at cee.hw.ac.uk (Andrew Dinn) wrote:

[...]
>Sure as hell get the impression that some of those scenes are taken
>from the life of T R Pynchon Esq. Are there any parallels which can be
>confirmed ro taken as read:

>Slothrops = Pyncheons?

OK, I'll tackle this, since it's a 'gimmee' for anyone who's ever read
the entire novel. :-)  The main parallel is between William Slothrop and
William Pynchon, and the preeminent example occurs on p. 555, where TRP
writes that Wm. Slothrop, "wrote a long tract about it presently, called
_On Preterition_.  It had to be published in England, and is among the
first books to've been not only banned but also ceremonially burned in
Boston."

I'm sure most p-listers know that William Pynchon's _The Meritorious
Price of Our Redemption_ was burned in the Boston market place by the
common executioner in October 1650, becoming the first book to be banned
in America.

I'm less sure about parallels between TRP / Tyrone, except that writers will
always draw on themselves to some extent; TRP writes in the intro to _Slow
Learner_ that it took him a long time to realize that he should write about
things he *knew* about.  But he would've been, like, 7 or 8 at the time the
novel takes place, so it's hard to picture him as the Don Juan of WW2 London.
I'll defer to my learned colleagues on this one.

-- 
Alan Westrope     PGP public key:  http://www.crl.com/~awestrop
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