What Pynchon wrote?

[Terrance]

> 
> Hence, I would wish to argue that text/context includes the
> reader/reading of P's Foreword, given the two passages that address the
> reader directly (by which I mean they refer to 'now' and ask the
> 'now'-reader to call upon their own experiences/knowledge/feelings).

Sure. Why not? 


> 
> Phase 3 (xv-xvii) deals with the accuracy of the novel's
> prophesy/prediction, which means the reader is now being asked to judge
> the text (novel) against the world they (the reader) live in. By this
> stage, then, the reader (of P's Foreword, it doesn't matter if they
> haven't read 1984 ... which is quite reasonable, really) has become more
> and more important. I would also suggest that, more and more, P himself
> as author is more important.

Well, it is a Foreword so it's reasonable to expect that people will
read it prior to reading the novel. For some it will be their very first
reading of the novel, orwell, pynchon. In fact, when I teach it, I
expect that most of the students will be reading the novel for the first
time. For most, if not all, it will be their first time reading anything
written by Pynchon. But of course it does matter. Those of us that have
read the novel has a better idea of what P is talking about since he
talks about some of the characters and situations in the novel. 

I'm not sure why you think the Foreword becomes more and more about P
himself? 

Is he more self-conscious? More introspective? What?