re Re RESPECT! (WAS Pynchon's possible response to Playboy Japan)

[Doug Millison]

"jbor"
Doug, this is what I wrote:
"Now that Pynchon has finally broken a deliberate forty year silence by
speaking out - so comprehensively and thoughtfully - in this, his first
official press interview, strategically vouchsafed to a journalist from"
_Playboy_.

Yeah, that sounds about right.  My problem is with the phrase "deliberate
forty year silence", since Pynchon has observed no such thing. As Dave
Monroe and I have pointed out -- and of course it's common knowledge to any
serious Pynchon reader like yourself --  Pynchon has talked to journalists
and has spoken to the public in his own voice in many ways outside of his
stories and novels throughout his career.  I still don't see how you can
argue for a " deliberate forty year silence" in the face of these facts.

The rest of what you said,
" by speaking out - so comprehensively and thoughtfully - in this, his
first official press interview, strategically vouchsafed to a journalist
from" _Playboy_"
-- I don't agree with any of that, and haven't claimed any of it on
Pynchon-L -- if in this statement you seek to characterize what I've
written, that's just plain incorrect.  His remarks -- if they are Pynchon's
that is --  don't appear comprehensive, they sound off-the-cuff, I wouldn't
describe the article as an "official press interview", and I don't know
what you might mean by  " strategically vouchsafed to a journalist from
_Playboy_" -- this doesn't look-- to me --  like a strategic move on
Pynchon's move at all, assuming it really is Pynchon, and of course I could
be wrong about that.  I like the word "vouchsafed" however, but don't find
it apt here.

Maybe I should explain more about how I see that this kind of assertion --
" deliberate forty year silence" -- helps perpetuate a myth of Pynchon the
recluse.  It's part of the story that a lot of people tell about Pynchon, a
story that contradicts actual observable facts about Pynchon (the facts of
his statements to journalists, letters to the editor, telephone calls, book
support quotes, personal essays and introductions to books in which he
reveals personal information, etc.), and a story that seems to try to
answer the questions, Why does Pynchon eschew celebrity and publicity, why
so little response to journalists, what accounts for the astonishing power
of his art, etc.  So, it seems to me, the story "Pynchon is a recluse"
seeks to explain another observable fact -- the way he does generally stay
out of the limelight, despite the worldwide popularity of his writings  --
and thus enters the realm of myth.

The problem with myths, in my opinion, is that sometimes they can get in
the way of a realistic appraisal of the mythologized subject.   I like to
think of Pynchon as a human being, prone to the complexities and
contradictions that a human being can exhibit, and don't consider him some
mythologized artist who is somehow (by virtue of his "reclusiveness", his
alleged drug use, his brainpower, etc.) perceived as not human, not sharing
in the common life of humanity.   His art is brilliant, that goes without
saying, but it represents to me one of the pinnacles of human artistic
achievement.

"jbor":
"There's no way I want or need to be your friend."

I'm sorry you feel that way.  It won't stop me from thinking friendly
thoughts about you, however.

-Doug