that sci-fi opera

[Dave Monroe]

Opera, as in "it ain't over 'til the fat lady sings,
Elmer Fudd in spear and magic helmet, The Marx
Brothers in a Night at the" style opera.  Pynchon's
proposed libretto, Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man,
while an SF classic, is anything but "space opera." 
Unfortunately, Richard Lane's Pynchon Files are gone
...

http://www.pynchonfiles.com/shock.htm

But no doubt because of my incredible foresight ...

"Anthroresearch Associates in Maiden Lane, New York,
where V.'s Benny Profane becomes a night watchmen and
meets the manikin's, seems a nod to the Alfred
Bester's The Demolished Man. There a guard works in a
Maiden Lane bank. Benny found his job at the
Space/Time Employment Agency, chapter sixteen of The
Demolished Man includes 'Space/d! Time' in the first
paragraph. Bester's novel was the basis for a 1959
opera libretto that Pynchon proposed to the Ford
Foundation for financial backing. The grant
application was denied."

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0103&msg=53533&sort=date

Speaking of multiple worlds, parallel universes,
alternate histories ...

> Fester Scratchit:
> "I haven't read that Ford Foundation application
> (too many boxes of cornflakes still waiting on my
> bookshelves) but I was under the impression he meant
> *space* opera, as in science fiction novel, as in,
> like, Dune, and not *opera* opera, as in, like,
> Tosca.  I'm not sure why anybody would think Pynchon
> is in any way capable of composing an opera...?  Is
> this really one of his ambitions?"

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