Pynchon interviewed in Playboy Japan re 9-11

[Paul Mackin]

I think even us "warmongers" are apt to welcome deflation of the get
bin Laden mania President Bush likes to talk about so heatedly. Although I'd
prefer to see Osama locked up in a looney bin somewhere it's his followers
who are the menace we Americans  fear and very much want to see crushed. To
the extent possible--it goes without saying.. In more normal times lighting
into Bushean rhetoric might been deemed beneath the talents of the great
Pynchon but these are not normal times. The establshment pooh poohers such
as SNL for whatever reason are presently pretty much hors de combat. Perhaps
this phase will soon be over.

        P.
.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Vincent A. Maeder" <vmaeder at valderlaw.com>
To: "Pynchon" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2001 10:49 AM
Subject: RE: Pynchon interviewed in Playboy Japan re 9-11


> I agree with Paul about that Pynchon presence behind the double (triple?)
> translation to get his words to us. The statement I found interesting was
> the statement "If you look at it from another angle, Bin Laden is a symbol
> rather than a human. There may be no Bin Laden ever existed." Interesting
> when put into the context of Pynchon's fiction. How many characters turn
out
> to not be there, or, like Slothrop, disappear into nothing (as Bin Laden
may
> have)?  I also found it interesting this appeared in a Japanese
publication.
> This connotes a connection between Pynchon and Japan (or someone in or
from
> Japan). Perhaps there is something there in the new work that may be
> approaching?
>
>
>
>