MDDM Ch. 58 Young Nathe

[jbor]

Mike wrote:

> On the more biographical front: young Tom may very well have had a job
> similar to Nathan's--his father was in charge of roads and surveying for
> the county, wasn't he? (I forget his exact title).  So it's possible that
> Pynchon found himself working on a county road crew during the summers
> between years at Cornell.  I can't recall any direct evidence to support
> this, but I've always read Benny Profane's experinces on the road crew as
> semi-autobigraphical.
> 
> 

He was indeed; I hadn't even considered that connection. Thanks. Recall also
that Pynchon's first fictional protagonist is named Nathan "Lardass" Levine,
and that events in 'The Small Rain' supposedly draw on Pynchon's own
experiences as well. So, perhaps there is a mysterious milkmaid d'amour
lurking somewhere in Tommy P's past, eh?

I think you might be right re. Benny too, and there's also the stunning
passage in _GR_ where Tyrone recalls his time in the Berkshires doing
"Chapter 81 work" (625-6), remembering those

    [...] days when in superstition and fright he could *make it all fit*,
    seeing clearly in each entry a record, a history: his own, his winter's,
    his country's . . .

It is quite tempting to try and *make it all fit*, isn't it.

best