Plist ethos reply

[Sherwood, Harrison]

>From: 	MASCARO at humnet.ucla.edu

>  Pynchon seems to want to avoid this kind 
>of grotesque *childhood* for his son, but, as someone earlier
> pointed out, it's probably no *coincidence* that
> these rifts in his barrier *coincide* w/ his son's need for socialization.

Yes, and to keep a little perspective here, let's remember that the man
is a major novelist who just published a major novel that was one of the
five top-selling books for a few weeks, and that quite soon the book
will have run its course on the world stage as far as the mainstream
press is concerned--if it hasn't already. Been a fun few weeks,
specially for us Big Fans. The publication of _Mason & Dixon_ was major
news, transcending the book review and highbrow-culture sections of the
newspaper and spilling out into the style and gossip sections. Now ends
the "moving product" part of the book's life-cycle, and begins the
actual reading and discussing and scholarship. That's generally where
the eyes of the James Bones of the world glaze over and they slouch off
in search of fresh carrion. (Somebody needs to tip him off about Tom
Clancy's locally infamous Annapolis drag orgies--Middies, Middies,
Middies!)

I don't doubt for an Upper West Side minute that once _M&D_ is off the
bestseller lists, Jackson will get the happy and healthy childhood all
people of goodwill no doubt wish for him and his parents. Pynch ain't no
movie star. Authors, even famously reclusive ones, don't get the
mainstream press camped on their doorstep like a Beatle or a celebrity
murderer, unless they've published within the last month. Anybody think
that disgusting _Esquire_ stalking of Salinger would have been published
if he hadn't been preparing his first publication in decades?

Besides, now that The Photo of the Reclusive Thomas Pynchon has been
published, how compelling is the demand for the *Second* P of the RTP
going to be? And it's not like you can ambush him as he picks his kid up
from school and force him to submit to an _interview_.

Harrison