CNN

[Tom Stanton]

At 04:22 PM 6/8/97 -0800, Doug Millison wrote:
>My comment concerned only the nature of the CNN's story, not how it
>originated.  Pynchon is a serious writer. [snip] It's hard to imagine that's 
>what the Pynchon/Holt PR machine intended in this case, if in fact they 
>were the originating source for the CNN story.

Please name for me *any* mass media piece on any serious artist
that isn't a glitzy gloss. If TRP were a very public figure we'd be thrilled 
if CNN featured him because otherwise he'd have little or no press at 
all, as is the case with many serious writers.

The "event" for CNN is The Reclusive Writer Who Shuns Publicity
in an age where everybody begs for press. A-and I'll bet a paycheck
Holt's PR folks worked the CNN angle hard & timed it to follow the
reviews by a few weeks to keep up the buzz. Even without a PR force,
TRP's famous distaste for publicity makes news. When "Vineland" was
published, People Magazine ran a similar type of piece featuring
no less than John Krafft, editor of Pynchon Notes, but the whole 
emphasis was on The Reclusive Writer Who Shuns Publicity. That's
the story line, period. 

BTW, at some point TRP has to be considering who gets the papers
& other material for a biography. Now *that* will be interesting...