What hooked me on Pynchon...

[the Robot Vegetable]

	Well, I'm not.  I like his books a whole lot.  The guy
I really don't give a damn about.  I ordered _M&D_ six months
before publication.  Two copies.
	1977, a friend of mine, who was perfectly at home 
paying attention to a TV blaring, two radios playing, a record 
spinning,  a dozen people with three separate conversations going,  
me,  a couple books, and _Gravity's Rainbow_.  I was in awe, and
unable to stay around very long.  Triple gemini.
	What struck me the most was that yet another friend, who
also hadn't read _GR_,  kept telling me in astounded tones about
the index of secondary characters that Stuart had created.  A
few years latter, depression here early '80s, I began to find
Stuart's books in the used books stores.  I was unable to catch
his copy of _GR_.
	Any one seen it?

	veg