Pynchon-Tinasky

[jbor]

I'm not sure that it's simply a matter of "old left" leanings as of common
sense. Why would a writer of Pynchon's stature and acclaim bother with such
mean-spirited and obviously resentful diatribes against obscure local poets
& other writers? And, profit margin and self-publicity certainly seemed to
be uppermost in the minds of some of those supposed "old lefties" who were
hawking the published letters around the traps for several years there.

The current consensus seems to be that the originator of the Tinasky hoax
was in fact Thomas Hawkins, as cited in Alan Westrope's post of last Nov.
Alan gave an example from Donald Foster's book, and the commentary there is
more up-to-date (and feasible) than in that 'Lingua Franca' article:

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0011&msg=357&keywords=tinasky

See also Alan's page detailing "over 45 years of confusion over the
identities of Gaddis, [Jack] Green, Pynchon, and Tinasky:

http://www.komarios.net/gaddis/whoswho.htm

best


----------
>From: Eric Rosenbloom <ericr at sadlier.com>
>

> Richard Romeo wrote:
>>
>> Usenet search result 1 for pynchon
>> cited article:  http://www.linguafranca.com/9509/pynchon.html
>
> This is well written assessment of the Tinasky question. It seems that
> if you think Pynchon's politics are of the old left variety, then you
> tend to think that she's he.
>
> Analysts look at Vineland for comparisons of style and allusion, because
> Pynchon was presumably in Mendocino county working on that book, but I
> see a lot more Gravity's Rainbow in those letters. My guess, assuming
> that Pynchon was the letter writer, is that he was reviewing his
> previous work to help guide the next book and went slightly bonkers.
> (Joyce reviewed all of his previous work before starting Finnegans Wake,
> making notes in the famous Scribbledehobble notebooks.) But, you say,
> Vineland was surely well into production at the time! Well, they say
> Mason & Dixon was in the works for at least 18 years, that is, since
> before 1978 (when Newsweek reportedly reported that he was working on a
> book about two surveyors). It was probably set aside to mature, just as
> Gravity's Rainbow was (may be!), the author setting his mind to other
> matters by writing other books, The Crying of Lot 49 in the latter case,
> Vineland in the former.
>
> Back to those letters. In "Journey into the Mind of Watts," I read the
> word "chisler," a kind of slang spelling, I think, meant to represent a
> slangy pronunciation. It is not in the O.E.D., although "chizzle" is
> (but not "chizzler"). I remember first seeing this spelling in the
> letters of Wanda Tinasky. Alas, I can't find it again, so I may be
> dreaming or misremembering the source. The letters do, however, mention
> King Kong quite often.
>
> Yours,
> Eric R
>
>
>
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