pynchon enters german high schools!

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

                "how many teachers reach all the kids in the classroom?" (guru)

played into my hands got an advertising booklet of the ernst klett 
schulbuchverlag (leipzig) which is a leading german publishing house for 
school-books. the brochure anounces the forthcoming appearance of the following 
publication: "facetten (der modernen weltliteratur). ein lese- und arbeitsbuch 
deutsch für die oberstufe." the book is designed to be used for the german 
lessons of 16-19 year old high school kids. it contains translated samples of 
novels from people like rushdie, murakami, farah, márquez or duras. a-and 
america? is represented by don delillo, toni morrison & - tätärätä! - thomas 
pynchon. funny world map they have where the colored dots for don (pink), toni 
(blue) and thomas (red) are placed somewhere in the middle of the country which, 
strange enough, seems to suggest that pynchon is writing his books in wyoming 
... the corresponding text says: "t h o m a s  p y n c h o n (usa) 'v' (1976 
[first german edition.kfl])seit 1962 (beginn als freier schriftsteller) 
verwischt der autor die spuren seines lebensweges, sodass seine romane die 
einzigen belege seiner existenz sind; es existieren seit dieser zeit keine 
interviews und kaum fotos". na ja, schwach befriedigend, setzen! they always 
focus on one specific novel, in pynchon's case this is "v". (perhaps gr was 
considered to be too extreme..."vergleichen sie die ofen-triade mit dem hänsel & 
gretel märchen der gebrüder grimm!") any idea out there about the passages they 
might have chosen? chapter 9, which could be connected to a corresponding 
history lesson, would make sense here i guess. keeping an eye on the issue i'll 
try to get a copy of the pynchon part when the book appears: you'll hear it here 
first. but hey, isn't there something wrong?! last year our german government 
(co)sponsored those docus on pynchon, now they introduce the man in schools, 
next thing will be "the official german thomas pynchon museum" right in the 
middle of berlin ... well folks, perhaps our troyian naumann horse was a little 
too successfull ... kai, skull scratching -