re P's intentions

[JBFRAME at aol.com]

Maybe it's not so much a question of balance as it is a matter of relevance.  
How much of TRP's life is relevant to an understanding of his work?  Is a 
knowledge of the author's real life crucial to an appreciation of his novel?  
Think of Cervantes.  How much do we know about him?  My appreciation of _Don 
Quixote_ does not suffer by my lack of knowldege of his life.   What about 
Tolstoy?  I am ignorant of most of the details of his life.  I might find his 
biography fascinating, but I appreciate his work already.  Think of 
Hemingway, someone we may know too much about.  We can still separate the 
wheat from the chaff.  The knowledge does seem to get in the way, though.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't believe it's necessary to know 
anything about an author, even the gender.  I think it satisfies our 
curiosity, and I'm always glad to have my curiosity satisfied.  But it's 
certainly not essential to an understanding or appreciation of a literary 
work.

And if it's what the author prefers, so be it.

As for TRP's intentions concerning _Gravity's Rainbow_, that's quite evident 
in the body of the work.   And we're all smart enough to figure that out.

jbf