Writing Theory

[Doug Millison]

The four novels he was working on in the 60s were more likely V., GR,
COL49, and M&D (not Vineland).

At 1:22 PM -0600 2/28/00, Doug Millison wrote:
>I don't know about a formal theory to explain this, but your observation
>("that novelists write 'pre-writes' in the form of smaller novels before
>their bigger works, i.e. no V. without the story from Slow Learner, no GR
>without TCOL49, no MandD without Vineland. It's as though P writes an
>introduction or outline for what he wishes to write later, and it still
>gets published") reminds me of my personal theory that Pynchon is writing
>one big novel, or, at the very least, is engaged in an ongoing project in
>which he addresses similar themes and sometimes similar material in his
>books (although I think his canon is more tightly connected and integrated
>than that).  Sketchy biographical info tells us that Pynchon was working on
>four big novels (I think that's the number I remember from the letter to
>his agent that surfaced in the letters that were sold to the Pierpont
>Morgan Library) in the '60s, which could have been V., GR, Vineland, and
>M&D, or perhaps some other grouping of works both published and
>unpublished. Given the number of specific intertextual references in his
>stories and novels, the appearance of characters from earlier works in
>later works, and the continuity in the material he uses to build his
>novels, I don't think it's an unreasonable conclusion to view the books as
>one big novel. Your mileage may vary, of course.
>
>
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