M&D Q

[jbor]

> From: "J. Lawshe" 
> 
> Does anyone know Newsweek's source for their (1978) claim that a TRP
> Mason-Dixon Line novel was in the works?  Do we have a good idea of when
> he started thinking/writing M&D?

I think that it was probably something which was dropped in casual
conversation with someone which then got picked up and reported, similar to
the way that Pynchon's recent (2000?) meeting with Michael Naumann evolved
into that interview on German radio where Naumann dropped the news that
Pynchon was working on a novel to do with a young female Russian
mathematician who worked with David Hilbert early in the century. Thomas E.,
Otto and Kai passed on information about that report earlier this year:

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0003&msg=370&keywords=Naumann

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0003&msg=394&keywords=Naumann

It's interesting that from the news that Pynchon was working on a "novel
about the Mason-Dixon line" the assumption became that he was writing a
novel about the American Civil War. And in a way I guess that what Pynchon
did eventually do in the novel was to humanise that "line" which divided
(divides?) North and South!

There were rumours of a Godzilla novel floating about from some time in the
60s I believe too; these proved to be somewhat overblown once _Vineland_ was
published.

best