Pynchon-Tinasky

[Dave Monroe]

But ...

--- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:

> and that appalling racial slur
> against Alice Walker: these are far removed from
> Pynchon's attitudes on
> similar topics imo, expressed both through his
> fiction and explicitly in his
> non-fiction and the (*signed*) letters, blurbs,
> introductions and
> reminiscences.

Again, seeing as Eric was kind enough to save me some
typing here, here's the relevant letter ...

"Would you be interested in serializing a novel I have
in process, based on the romantic lives of several of
our more public local personalities?  To avoid
lawsuits, I have disguised reality somewhat ... e.g.,
present-day Mendocino County becomes Kenya c. 1910;
you, Mr. Anderson [editor of the AVA], are of course
the Great White Hunter-poet-philosopher, always flying
your air flivver off into the bushes to shoot lions &
suck your pipe; Alice Walker appears as your faithful
old gunbearer, to whom you are always exclaiming with
rough affection, 'You purple-assed baboon!' (I know
this phrase is used by William Seward Burroughs, Mr.
Anderson, but remember, this is 1910 ... I'll sue him
for plagiarism!) --April 16, 1986

"Out of Africa, or Way Out West With the Night, my
thinly veiled novel of life in romantic Mendocino
County." --May 28, 1986

... again, do note that we are talking about what we
all seem to presume to be a fictional character (Wanda
Tinasky, whoever "she" might have been) writing about
an actual person  (Mr. Anderson) as a fictionalized
character ("Mr. Anderson," "the Great White
Hunter-poet-philosopher") talking about another actual
person (Alice Walker) as, however, yet another
fictionalized character ("your faithful old
gunbearer").  Certainly, Pynchon's (for starters)
fictional characters have said similarly "appaling"
things about othe fictional, even fictionalized
characters?  

Again, I'm not particularly partisan on the "Wanda
Tinasky = Thomas Pynchon or no?" question, but I can't
say that I've seen the latter verdict proven beyond a
shadow of a doubt, here or elsewhere.  Nor have I seen
the former verdict "proven" either, but ... but I've
yet to see unanswerable "refutations" levelled against
t, either, so ... again, an interesting question. 
Even if it isn't answered, does make us ask
interesting stylistic, theoretical, even ethical
questions ...


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