What hooked me on Pynchon...

[Thomas Vieth]

In 1984 or so I bought a record by Laurie Anderson by the name of...I 
forget...Anyway, it had a song called "Gravity's Angel".

In '87 I came to Bochum to dive into the university. They have a great 
central library, where, in my leisure time, I strolled through the 
aisles of the English section for a good read. I came across a book 
called "Gravity's Rainbow" - and I thought wait a minute, you know that 
title from somewheres. My mind went rattle, rattle, rattle and I came up 
with the connection and thought, well, check it out. At home I looked at 
the cover of that record and found beneath the lyrics to the above song 
the line "Dedicated to Thomas Pynchon". So I went and took a six-weeks 
lasting look at the thing and was absolutely fascinated. I like a 
polymath writer and you all know how erudite TRP is, don't you? But it 
was also his "voice", his themes, his bizarre humor (something I cherish 
a whole lot), his INSIGHTS, his policital views (as imagined by me...), 
his narrative intricacies, and much more.

Shortly thereafter, I read V. and was almost equally fascinated. I say 
almost, because from the moment I had finished GR for the first time 
(have read it ten or twelve times by now) I was deeply in love with it. 
CL49 was short and sweet for me. (Maybe this does have something to do 
with sequence). It seemed like a notepad for V. and GR to me.

When I read the stories in Slow Learner I went "...aw", but after I 
considered that these were written way before the great works I nodded 
my head in appreciation.

VL was the first TRP books whose publication I witnessed. For the next 
two years I had the most fun with it. It has a fast pace, an era I can 
relate to, and lots of that bizarre humor (see above). After that I went 
back to GR. In the winter semester 1995/96 I held a class on VL and thus 
shared a lot of the fun with some students here. I say "some", because 
there were only seven or so which made it an energetic and fun circle, 
though. Winter semester 1996/97 I held a class on V. and had about the 
same resonance, with the exception that now I get to read and evaluate 
my first term paper (not my own, no, but by one of the students).

A friend in the States send me a copy of M&D on April 30th. For some 
reason I really had to chew on that book, but I guess it had more to do 
with my current state of mind (not being able to concentrate well 
enough) than with the novel itself. No, really, it's great and a sharp 
competitor for my affection, trying to undo GR's position.

Dass all fer now, foax,

Thomas Vieth
Down with Triolahidi
Long live Hollerodullyo


______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com