Pynchon & journalists

[jbor]

When has he "talked to journalists", specifically? Has he ever before
allowed himself to be the subject of an interview?

on 12/1/02 9:32 AM, Doug Millison at millison at online-journalist.com wrote:

> Pynchon talked to CNN by
> telephone in 1997. And he allowed himself to be interviewed by David Hajdu
> for his book Positively 4th Street

Thanks. I'd already acknowledged both these "interviews" in earlier
responses to you. I thought you were holding back on something.

So, let's see, in Doug's world, a couple of faxed replies (about Richard
Farina, mind) to questions from an author/biographer and a phone call to CNN
to ask that he not be identified in video footage taken by a photojournalist
who had been stalking him is what is categorised as Pynchon having "talked
to journalists" to something approaching a normal degree for a writer of his
stature? Mm. Not very convincing I'm afraid. I'd say the idea of a
deliberate 40 year silence on the old journalistic interview-front is a
somewhat more accurate characterisation, wouldn't you? He's never, after
all, allowed himself to be the subject of an interview with a journalist.

And the notion that because it's got a glossy cover _Playboy_ Japan is more
reputable than a book is ... I can't find the words to describe how dazzled
I am by *that* insight. Wouldn't the salient point be that the status of the
words attributed to Pynchon in either case is *exactly the same*?

best