MDMD[6]: Fatherhood & The Absent Author

[Sherwood, Harrison]

>From: 	Paul Mackin

>By the way, one thing about avoiding the media is that
>we then have no way of knowing about the person, including just how
>reclusive (shut off from society) he actually is or ever was. All we
>know is we were not personally in contact with him or with others
>who were. 

Yes. Exactly. This is what I meant by "the Absent Author." The only
thing we know about him is that we don't know anything about him.

The question I was attempting to bring up relied on the identification
of Author as Father, and vice versa. If the child is molded by the
parent as an author molds a book, what happens when the author is
absent?

Pynchon knows the horrible answer to this question, and chooses not to
be an absent father. What does this mean to his writing?

Harrison