Pynchon's intro to Been Down So Long

[Doug Millison]

It's difficult to tell when Pynchon is being serious 
or not, in his fiction and non-fiction, imo. 

> on 10/4/02 5:10 PM, Paul Nightingale at
 in each P reinvents himself
> retrospectively yet does so
> without insisting on the benefit of hindsight. 

I agree with the first part of this statement, that P
reinvents himself in these essays, but I don't follow
the rest of it.  P does seem to use hindsight when he
judges the way he used to write about women, etc.

> he
> doesn't "[sentimentalise] his own earlier years"

The intro to the Farina novel carries, to my ear, that
sound of "that's the way it was, us wild and crazy and
carefree college kids", selectively presenting images
and episodes to underscore this general
characterization of the period in which P met F -- he
puts something of a rosy glow around it, and that's
what I meant with "sentimentalize", a term with many
meanings I'm sure. 


> P is
> just as much an unreliable narrator as Wicks
> Cherrycoke.


Can't disagree with that.


> And he doesn't
> dwell on his actual relationship with Farina: he has
> very little to say
> about their time together. 


I suspect P is as cautious about revealing his
friends' personal lives as he, reportedly, expects his
friends to be cautious about revealing details of his
own personal life.


>However, they are linked
> together, in many ways
> as opposites rather than soul twins.


P does seem to distance himself from F in this intro,
even as he praises him as a person and, tepidly I
believe, as a writer.


--- vze422fs at verizon.net wrote:
> More Pynchon on Farina can be found in David Hajdu's
>  Positively Fourth
> Street. 

Almost substantial enough to convince me to pay for
the book and take it home after reading the
Pynchon-related passages in it -- but perhaps that's
the dividing line between me and the true Pynchon
fanatic. I left Hadju's book on the bookstore shelf.



=====
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