SF in TRP's life

[John Boylan]

  Didn't Pynchon write a grant proposal around '60, wanting to write a
libretto for a SF opera? I believe in the proposal he mentioned how
influenced he was by the SF out at the time, though I don't think he
named names. My guess : Alfred Bester, 'The Demolished Man' and 'The
Stars My Destination'; maybe Ray Bradbury, probably Philip K. Dick
( 'Time Out of Joint' had been published the year before ).