Rushdie and Pynchon

[Murthy Yenamandra]

Vivek Ahlawat speculates:
> Pynchon seems to have spent some time researching M&D
> in London (?) and could have met Rushdie. 

According to this interview of Rushdie by Christopher Hitchens (The
Progressive, Oct 1997), Rushdie did meet Pynchon in NYC. Here is an
extended excerpt of the interview (available whole at
http://www.britannica.com/bcom/magazine/article/0,5744,225230,00.html):

> Q: There are some people who opt for internal exile. J.D. Salinger is a
> very well-known one. Thomas Pynchon is another. I remember you reviewing
> one of his novels in The New York Times, and he spoke about what it is
> to never be in contact with anybody else. Your brief comment on this
> fiction was, "Well, he should try the real thing some time."
> 
> Rushdie: Yeah, well, he should try it, but it's not something you choose.
> 
> Q: Was it this that led you to finally meet him?
> 
> Rushdie: Yes. Gasp. Shock. Horror. I met Thomas Pynchon. Yes, it's true.
> Yes, it's because I reviewed Vineland, and he liked the review. And
> before that, he sent me a very nice message of solidarity, of support.
> But after the review of Vineland appeared in The New York Times he sort
> of made contact and intimated that, should I be in New York, he would be
> available for a meeting. So we had one. And I must say, the thing that
> was deeply pleasurable and comforting was that he was exactly like
> Thomas Pynchon. You know what I mean? You have a picture in your head of
> Thomas Pynchon, and then this other guy shows up and says, "Hi, I'm
> Thomas Pynchon." And you're wrong. Well, this did not happen. He showed
> up and looked exactly like the Thomas Pynchon I'd always known.
> 
> He began shy and ended up fantastically talkative about three o'clock in
> the morning, when I was kind of propping my eyelids open with
> matchsticks, thinking, "It's Thomas Pynchon, stay awake." And he was
> saying, "Gee, I guess you want to go to bed now?" I said, "No, no, not
> at all." And so he went on and on and we had a great time. It satisfied. 
> 
> I'm just a huge Thomas Pynchon fan. It had occurred to me when I was
> reviewing Vineland that my entire career as a published writer had taken
> place between the publication of Gravity's Rainbow and the publication
> of Vineland. And that when Gravity's Rainbow came out, I had been like
> any young reader rushing out to the shop to buy it. In those days, you
> couldn't even buy Pynchon in England in an English edition because he
> didn't have a publisher. You had to rely on import editions. There was
> only one shop in London that I knew imported American books. I went
> rushing up there and found my copy of Gravity's Rainbow and took it back
> and went into that wonderful thing, "screaming comes across the sky,"
> all that. And the next time he publishes a book, I get to review it in
> The New York Times--that seems very odd.

Hope that was not too long...

Murthy

-- 
Murthy Yenamandra                  mailto:yenamand at cs.umn.edu
Dept of Computer Science           University of Minnesota
"I strive to be brief, but I become obscure." - Horace