kennedy & coventry

[public domain]

Which Coventry, which Kennedy?

Unless some ambitious researcher discovers that
Pynchon has a historical Captain Kennedy and Ship in
mind, we are free to speculate. If Pynchon is
referring to a particular Captain and a specific ship,
what does this tell us about his fiction? It's a game?
A puzzle?  Pynchon does not provide footnotes. It
seems an awful burden to the reader. That is, if we
are supposed to get what he's getting at. That is, if
there is a point to the points plotted and plotless,
infinite, singular & singular (stange).  Pynchon never
tires of unpacking his library and his adolescent
pranks like an outraged subconscious whore.   
Sometimes his fiction is burdened with notes,  works
not cited,  twisted historical facts, arcane allusions
and  Freudian hip-slips swept from under the beds of
giants and carried away in the dust bin or blown back
in the reader's face like so much Pynchonesque 
highbrow flatulence.  Are we supposed to get them? Is
he in some kind of contest with James Joyce? A farting
contest? Coincidence? 

Tom: Post-ironic? 
Jimmy: Gee Tom. What's that? 
Tom: Transparent? 
Jimmy: Did I ever explain my Hamlet theory to you? 
Tom: Yeah, now that's post-ironic! 
Jimmy (blows a huge fart, exaggerates sucking wind up
his nostrils): Ah, yes, yes, yes. 


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