Pynchon's next work

[Commodore Bartonius]

I heard that Pynchon was actually in St. Augustine FL last year doing
research for work that is yet to be released. Heard this from a used book
seller in Daytona who knew a used book-seller in St. Augustine, who heard it
from a bartender who said that Pynchon and a younger woman drank a few beers
(Rolling Rock in bottles) at the bartender's place of employment, and that
it was only after they'd finished these beers that Pynchon realized he
didn't have enough cash to cover the tab. The story goes that this
particular bar doesn't accept credit cards for tabs of less than X dollars,
so Pynchon sent his female friend to the nearest ATM to get some cash. In
the meantime, Pynchon started asking questions about the region, focusing,
supposedly, on two particular areas: Matanzas Inlet (site where Spanish
forces slaughtered about 1000 French soldiers who had surrendered to the
Spanish  after receiving promises of safe passage), about 15 miles to the
south of St. Augustine, and Guana State Park (jungly nature-area), about 8
miles north. The bartender asked Pynchon if he was writing a book or
something, and Pynchon said something to the effect of yes, he was, because
he thought it would be interesting to compare the then and the now and the
invasion of western religion, and all kinds of other things, even
extra-terrestrials who would be living in Guana State Park disguised as
plants, or were plants, or something like that. Pynchon's friend came back,
they paid, and left without leaving a very good tip, maybe mad that the bar
didn't accept credit cards for tabs under X dollars, speculated the
book-seller in Daytona, who shared this with me because I was buying a
couple used Pynchon titles. The bartender's encounter with Pynchon is
supposed to have occured sometime last summer. The name of the bookstore
where I heard this flip-flop is Mandala Books, in Daytona FL. I didn't catch
the name of the guy who told me all of this because it didn't seem to matter
at the time, as I knew the story probably wasn't true, but also because I
was pretty excited by the fact that the story could have been true. What
supposedly clinches the fact that this guy in St. Augustine was Pynchon was
this: the bartender asked Pynchon what books he'd written, and the guy
(Pynchon) supposedly told him: "Mason and Dixon," but only as he and his
female friend were leaving. Doesn't fit the Pynchon m.o. 100%, but kinda
close. The St. Augustine book-seller, on hearing of this from the bartender,
grilled that bartender for all the info he could get, and the Daytona
book-seller in turn grilled the St. Augustine bookseller for what he told
me. Now chances are, even if that was Pynchon in that bar, the truth of the
encounter has been bent way out of shape by all the retelling, my own
included. Anyway, I thought it was entertaining enough to pass on.
I've thought about trying to track down the St. Augustine book-seller in
order to track down the bartender, but, given Pynchon's history of
reclusiveness, that 's probably just the kind of fanatic fan-action that he
wants to avoid.





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