Pynchon's Foreword

[Terrance]

jbor wrote:
> 
> on 5/6/03 5:56 AM, Terrance at lycidas2 at earthlink.net wrote:
> 
> > it's
> > slick marketing on pynchon's part (or whoever it is that markets him)
> > and I can't help but think that there is something ironic in all this.
> > THEY insisted he write some conventional Foreword and he insisted on
> > being a poet.
> 
> I imagine there's a credit for cover design on the back of the book. It was
> a bit silly to try and interpret the book cover in concert with Pynchon's
> Foreword in the first place. Chances are, the two were composed completely
> independently of one another.

The point is the irony. 


> 
> There may well be irony, though it'd be good if you could explain what you
> actually see as ironic. The influence of Orwell's _1984_ on Pynchon, in
> writing _GR_ particularly, was openly acknowledged in the title he chose for
> his short story collection in the mid '80s. 

If P chose his title "Slow Learner" to acknowledge the influence of
Orwell I can't see how it makes sense. Isn't it Winston that is called a
slow learner by O'Brien? So would P's title choice be an ironic one? 



When asked, I'm sure he was only
> too happy to write the new Foreword to Orwell's novel, and it's apparent
> that he even did a little bit of research (though, as per the reference list
> on p. xxvi, he does seem to have consulted only the first and fourth volumes
> of Orwell's essays and letters, and one biography, and he misses the mark on
> a couple of things, eg. the change in Orwell's attitude to the war itself,
> as a result). I'm not sure what's being marketed beyond the new edition of
> Orwell's novel, and I'm not sure that Pynchon's Foreword is particularly
> unconventional, except for a couple of typically Pynchonian asides written
> in a typically less than formal register, which are stylistically of a piece
> with same in other essays he has written.
> 
> The difference between this Foreword and the 'Intro' to _SL_ is that the
> latter is autobiographical and this one is biographical.

That's certainly the most obvious difference in those two kinds of
writing.