p-related question

[barbara100 at jps.net]

i gave gravity's rainbow to my boyfriend for christmas.  i wasn't expecting
him to read it anytime soon as he indicated earlier its 800 pages looked
mighty intimidating. so i thought i'd start him off slow like, bookmarking
byron the bulb for him, hoping the sexual and corporate undertones would wet
his appetite for the rest. it didn't work, and he admitted he couldn't even
get through byron's three pages.  but it got us talking about pynchon
anyway.  he asked me about the author's aloofness and the fact that there're
so few known photographs circulating.  he contemplated whether that
aloofness was part of the author's appeal.  i  tried to convince him (and
myself) that the he wasn't so aloof, what with forwards he's written and the
essays and more recently the playboy japan interview.  i also mentioned some
sort of acceptance speech that he made that i'm sure i heard about here.
the quote was even on quail's web site at one time, and rather profound as i
remember, something to do with the nature of power, i think.  so my
boyfriend asks, well if he made a speech at an awards ceremony (or whatever
it was) how come somebody didn't snap a picture of him?

so how come?  was it not an actual speech? or maybe he wrote it and somebody
else read it? is that old navy picture really the last the public has seen
of him?

barbara

ps: excuse the sloppy typing.  i've hurt my back and taken to typing one
handed.