Pynchon & journalists

[Doug Millison]

This has been discussed here many times but here you go again (glad I have
this info at my fingertips for you today): Pynchon talked to CNN by
telephone in 1997. And he allowed himself to be interviewed by David Hajdu
for his book Positively 4th Street : The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob
Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina, and Richard Farina which was published last year
-- a surprising amount  of material from Pynchon in there, actually.  I
posted excerpts from (or a URL pointer to, I forget which) a Publishers
Weekly interview with Hajdu in which he talked in some detail about how
satisfying his interaction was with Pynchon -- you could look it up -- and
my impression from Hajdu's comments was that he only used a fraction of
what Pynchon had to say to him in their exchange.   So, yes, specifically,
Pynchon has allowed himself to be interviewed by journalists, at least
twice to my knowledge -- and of course even once would be enough to deny
any claim for a "deliberate forty-year silence" (not to mention the
personal information Pynchon has shared or otherwise revealed in his
essays, book introductions, book support quotes, and even statements
embedded in novels such as his mentions of some friends by name in GR).
Pynchon has also responded by fax, through his wife and agent Melanie
Jackson, to questions from a P-lister regarding his former college roomate.

Hope that helps,
Doug