The spread of information re the Siegel/Pynchon-L megillah

[Penny Padgett]

Hi all,

In true entertainment-culture fashion, the story about the story is
bigger (and has longer legs) than the story itself.  Still, assuming
this will be of moderate interest, I send it along.

Penny

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Outing Thomas

The elusive Thomas Pynchon is continuing to provoke and fascinate even in
his enduring invisibility.

 The best-selling author of "Gravity's Rainbow" and "Vineland," whose
fixation with privacy makes fellow recluse J. D. Salinger look like P. T.
Barnum, is the subject of an online mailing list, Pynchon-L, that was
joined last October by Jules Siegel, a college friend of the author's, and
-- more titillatingly -- Siegel's ex-wife, Chrissie, who claims to have had
an affair with Pynchon.

 A visit from such privileged repositories of Pynchon arcana set the list
all a-tizzy -- finally, a chance to crack the isolationist armor of their
hero, who has not been photographed or interviewed in about 30 years. But a
backlash developed as fans' fascination turned to guilt over the propriety
of discussing information that Pynchon obviously would have preferred to
keep secret, and a lengthy flame war ensued in which Siegel's motives were
questioned.

 Siegel finally bailed out of the list, but now he has turned the
transcripts of the flame war into a book called "Lineland," which
conveniently comes on the heels of Pynchon's latest novel -- and also
raises a host of ethical questions: In addition to the liberties Siegel may
be taking with Pynchon's privacy, not all of the participants in the
mailing list, whose postings make up at least a third of the book, were
asked for permission to be quoted, and the feeling on Pynchon-L is that
Siegel behaved inappropriately.

 Legally there appears to be no case: The mailing list's content is freely
available on the Net, and unlike a community like the Well, Pynchon-L has
no specifically stated guarantee that your words are your own.
http://www.waste.org/pynchon-l/