deconstructing WHO THOMAS PYNCHON IS

[Peter 13]

In Dante’s “Inferno” the poet creates the illusion of predicting the 
future.  He has the souls he meets in hell make dire pronouncements on 
things to come but at the time of the composition of the poem these events 
have already taken place.  The author of the memoir about Thomas 
Pynchon does the same thing:  he says that he saw Pynchon making models of a 
rocket and surrounding himself with pig masks but of course the author of 
the memoir has the benefit of writing the memoir after the publication 
of the book.

In other words, the author of the memoir supplies information which 
elevates his status as an insider and a close companion of Pynchon but the 
information adds nothing to our understanding of the novel or Pynchon’s 
work habits.  If you think about it, the story makes absolutely no 
sense at all.  It is a story not about Pynchon but about the author of the 
memoir.

It is important to consider this issue carefully.  This little 
anecdote gets cited regularly but how true is it?  If the author of the memoir 
has already been demonstrated to have a less than
close relationship with the truth (for example, have you noticed that 
every girl he ever got involved with has a body like a Playboy bunny?) 
isn’t it reasonable to reject this story has yet another yarn spun out of 
the very weak fabric of a vague relationship which was of great 
significance to the author of the memoir but of little worth to Pynchon?