better version of Playboy Japan interview with TRP

[Doug Millison]

Otto, you know there is no end to Web links that lead to "no word from P."
What's that supposed to prove?

I'd say that 2001 is a major year for Pynchon breaking out and speaking in
public, the biggest since he spoke to CNN in 1997.  Substantial comments
from Pynchon appeared in Hadju's book on Farina and Dylan.  If the Playboy
Japan interview turns out to be authentic -- and there's no substantial
evidence yet that says it's not -- then it appears that Pynchon also spoke
to a reporter about current events, and took the risk of extending what
amounts to a criticism of US conduct in the current war with a specific dig
at Bush.

Pychon's critique of the US war -- and whatever anxieties that may provoke
in some of his readers -- in Afghanistan aside,  the myth of a Pynchon the
"recluse" seems more and more a romantic fantasy, at odds with the reality
of  Pynchon's statements to the public via journalists and in essays and
book support quotes (blurbs).