Rushdie and Pynchon

[Vivek Ahlawat]

GROUND is a mini encyclo of Am lit with references to
several writers and characters woven into the
narrative.Its far closer to the world of Foster
Wallace/Pynchon/Delillo than to Grass and Europe.

I haven't got my copies of Vineland and Ground with me
right now, but I remember both have similar openings:
of characters waking up from dreams.I'll try pasting
them up side by side. The similarities are striking.
Vineland's one famous positive review was, of course,
by Rushdie, who seems to have adopted its approval as
a sort of fraternal indulgence (the GBHF opening) -
was it a sort of homage, a fan's denial that the
maitre could stumble a bit now and than, fans who have
always been out here waiting to hear a word, a sign ?.


Pynchon seems to have spent some time researching M&D
in London (?) and could have met Rushdie. As Martin
Amis puts it in his memoir EXPERIENCE, Pynchon was
definitely having lunch with the likes of Ian Mcewan.

Going back to an earlier reference: the London of
Satanic Verses also owes a lot to to Dickens and Bleak
House and ties up with GR.


--- David Simpson <dsimpson at condor.depaul.edu> wrote:
> Have been a lurker here for only a few weeks, so
> please excuse if this
> topic has already been raked over numerous times.
> While reading
> Rushdie's "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" (a very
> ingenious, droll,
> satirical novel about politics and pop culture in
> the rock 'n roll
> era--and a book, incidentally, which Pynchon lovers
> are almost sure to
> enjoy), I came across the following exchange, said
> to take place in some
> "auction rooms in San Narciso, Calif." (p 400-401):
> 
> "So you're here for what, Yul demands . . . .
> 
> First let me tell you why you're here, says Mull.
> Turns out you're
> interested in conspiracies, underground
> organizations, militias, the
> whole right-wing paranoid America thing. Who knows
> why. You're here to
> bid for the memorabilia of some defunct immigrant
> cabal, used to go
> around writing DEATH on people's walls. Don't Ever
> Antagonize The Horn.
> They had a trumpet logo. Nice."
> 
> Am wondering, anybody ever pursue a Rushdie-Pynchon
> connection? Are they
> pen pals, mutual admirers, literary lunch buddies,
> or anything? GBHF, by
> the way, plays extensively with the Orpheus legend
> and hence draws
> significantly on Rilke's celebrated
> "Orpheus/Eurydice/Hermes" as well as
> the Sonnets to Orpheus and Duino Elegies (the latter
> of course famously
> dedicated to Princess Marie von Thurn und
> Taxis-Hohenloe).
> 
> 
> --
> "Human life must be some kind of
> mistake."--Schopenhauer
> 
> 


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