is Pynchon a recluse?

[jbor]

----------
> From: "Otto" <o.sell at telda.net>
>
> he seems to be not the kind of reclusive author like Salinger who
> shows a definite personal unfriendliness in unavoidable and normal social
> contacts.


Although, when the _Soho Weekly News_ ran a story that Pynchon was Salinger
he wrote back saying, simply, "Not bad, keep trying."

But, yes, I agree with you Otto. It's obvious that Pynchon isn't nearly as
cloistered or neurotic as Salinger. However, and by the some token, he's not
a publicity-hound like Foster Wallace or DeLillo or Updike either. There are
no book tours, glossy Sunday Supplement features, car ads, award acceptance
speeches. Pynchon's self-styled absence from public life has been consistent
for forty years now, just as have his occasional forays into the popular
press, book blurbs, and the like, these extending right back to the
beginning of his career as well, as Rich pointed out. There's the review of
_Warlock_ for _Holiday_ ('A Gift of Books', Dec. 1965), his letter to the
editor in the _NYTBR_ from July 1966 ('Pros and Cohns'), that letter to
Thomas Hirsch (1969) in which he expresses his disdain for Western
Christianity and which he subsequently permitted David Seed to publish in a
critical study, among other examples. Indeed, the 'Watts' article (1966)
itself is pretty much a straight piece of journalism.

I like Rich's notion that Pynchon speaks to the media on his own terms. And,
he certainly chooses which media (his conversation with Michael Naumann is
significant in this respect I think, and I'd be willing to bet that Pynchon
was aware and approving of that conversation's subsequent reportage in the
German media), as well as when, and about what.

It strikes me that there are both aesthetic and political implications to
Pynchon's choice of public anonymity. For one, the texts speak for
themselves, and this is something which is foregrounded by his absence from
the public spotlight. Secondly, garnering media celebrity would be somewhat
incongruous, if not hypocritical, in the light of his ongoing critique of
the structures and institutions of American hegemony.

best


----------
>From: "Otto" <o.sell at telda.net>
>To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: Re: is Pynchon a recluse?
>Date: Thu, Jun 14, 2001, 5:17 PM
>

>
> Is Pynchon a recluse?
>
> "My belief is that 'reclusive' is a code word generated by
> journalists...meaning 'doesn't like to talk to reporters.'"
> -- Thomas Pynchon to CNN
> http://www.itap.de/homes/otto/pynchon/bio.htm
>
> Yes, with good reasons, but I bet if any New Yorker would run into him
> there'd be no problem drinking a coffee and having a little talk to him.
> Insofar he seems to be not the kind of reclusive author like Salinger who
> shows a definite personal unfriendliness in unavoidable and normal social
> contacts.
>
> Pynchon's strategy has imo something to do with avoiding mysticism and
> public admiration, an attempt to avoid becoming an elect in the age of media
> reign. Maybe useless, but nevertheless honourable and aimed at to lead a
> somewhat normal life.
>
> Otto
>
>