Plist ethos reply

[Michael McAulay]

MASCARO at humnet.ucla.edu wrote:

> Pynchon seems to want his child to have as normal a life as possible, given
>  the circumstances.  Can it be done?

Here's my brief, possibly callous take on all of this:

If TP wants to stay out of the limelight, he's going to have to go on
the lam again.  It worked in Mexico and it'll work now.  The diff of
course is that he's more heavily encumbered these days what with the
wife and kid and all.

I'm deeply sympathetic to him, but he's in a precarious position. 
There's a danger here of the epiphenomenon taking on a life of it's
own.  In other words, folks who mightn't have cared one way or the other
catch wind of the "elusive" author and tune in to the Hard Copy
ambuscade simply for the titillation it provides.

We may not like what it says about our civilization but there's no
denying that nowadays, if you want privacy you have to pay for it.

The child is the real fly in the ointment, privacy-wise.  His wife was
an adult when they wed and presumably knew what she was getting into. 
But I don't see how "raising a child normally" and being a famous person
who "craves and guards his privacy" are compatible aims since the latter
seems to call for hidden trap-doors, Groucho noses, and plenty of carbon
monoxide fumes.

-- 
Mike McAulay
Sr. Engineer
3DO