SLSL Intro "It is only fair to warn ..."

[Michael Perez]

How seriously can we really consider this intro?  It doesn't seem that
a lot of time was spent on it, not that it's poorly written.  I always
thought of it, like most introductions, as a "letter to my readers." 
The tone is fairly informal as a letter would be, certainly not, IMO,
constructed like a story.  Presumably, it could have been done when the
gallies were examined and he had a chance to reacquaint with the
stories, which he probably hadn't thought about for many years.  It
does not contain heart-wrenching apologetics, but admits a wincing
glance back at a younger self.  Certainly any sort of autobiographical
writing necessitates the creation of a persona that is "not quite" the
subject.  I don't think anyone expects that Pynchon is going to write a
book of memoirs, but I think we can consider that this intro may have
been an uneasy obligatory gesture to readers who would probably have
purchased a bootlegged edition of his early writings or, by now though
not when the book was published, scarfed them off the internet.  This
brief appearence from behind the author's mask would be something that
would distinguish the book from any unauthorized editions, hence more
suitable for a reader's buck.

Michael

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