RAW & TRP

[Joe Varo]

In light of the couple of few recent messages about _Illuminatus!_ and
Pynchon, I thought that the following might be of interest. It's from
Robert Anton Wilson's latest book, _Everything is Under Control:
Conspiracies, Cults and Cover-ups_, co-authored with Miriam Joan Hill
(HarperCollins, 1998  pp 137-138):

The Crying of Lot 49
_The Crying of Lot 49_, by thomas Pynchon, is often regarded as the
ultimate post-modern novel; it is also the only novel, aside from the
infamous and unspeakable _Illuminatus! Trilogy_, that deliberately attempts
to maneuver the reader into and out of a paranoid framework *several
times*, leaving each reader to decide after "the trip" which makes more
sense -- paranoia or consensus reality.
[...]
Everything revolves around a mysterious corporation named Yoyodyne, and it
did not help the present author's detachment to actually see a Yoyodyne
factory in New Jersey one night (near Morristown). Was this proof that _Lot
49_ is based on fact, or does it merely show that some young entrepreneur
is a Pynchon fan and a prankster himself? Oedipa Maas faces that kind of
challenge on virtually every page of the novel, as the links from Yoyodyne
lead back to the Tristero postal system of the Middle Ages, a web spinning
around the Bavarian Illuminati (which is never mentioned by name), and a
strange clue taken from the dialogue of an old radio show, The Shadow,
which starred Orson Welles.
[...]
Pynchon shows considerable knowledge of information theory and other
scientific matters generally ignored by the literary intelligentsia. (In
another book, _Gravity's Rainbow_, he uses calculus and quantum mechanics
the way Joyce used Homer in _Ulysses_.) These are the only clues we have;
he has never been interviewed and never allows himself to be photographed.
They say he lives somewhere in California, but that may be a false lead; he
might live anywhere, even next door to you.

It has even been suggested that Pynchon is a pen name for T.C. May (see
Crypto-Anarchy). In the same spirit, the present author suggests that he
may be Dr. Jack Sarfatti, a quantum physicist with the most original
cosmology in modern science. (See
http://www.io.com/~hambone/web/sarfatti.html.)
[...]
[The article ends with the following "Selected References"]
http://www.pomona.edu/pynchon/
http://www.hyperarts.com/
http://www.as.ua.edu/english/faculty/deddins.htm