MDMD[6]: Fatherhood & The Absent Author

[SHUBHA GHOSH]

On Fri, 13 Jun 1997, Sherwood, Harrison wrote:

> >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 is only absent to the reader not the book he is creating.   He is
a nurturing author but not a self-indulgent (or media-indulgent) one.

Still your point about fatherhood is excellent.  Note that while MaD is
dedicated to wife and son, Vineland is to Pynchon's parents.  Is Vineland
in part Pynchon's attempt to understand what it means to be a son in the
same way the MaD is about Pynchon's bout with Fatherhood?


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