re Re: Pynchon's interviews

[pynchonoid]

Hajdu is worth quoting at length about his epistolary
interview with Pynchon.  The way Pynchon responded to
him sounds a bit like the engaged interaction with
Pynchon reported by the French translators of _Mason &
Dixon_ (online at lemonde.fr):

[...]  We did an epistolary interview. At first by fax
and then there was an exchange of letters, three
letters. I was shocked. I never requested an interview
with him because I knew he would say no. So, instead I
did all of my homework, spent a few months and
fashioned all the questions, everything I’d ever want
to ask him and just sent them. In the hope that he’d
be so intrigued by the questions that I might catch
him at the right moment.

He then proceeded to read my first book and he
requested through his agent a copy of my proposal for
this book. And he read it. (snorts) Then he responded.
I knew from my editor (who did not send the proposal
without my permission) that Pynchon was poring this
over in his mind. So I keep my fingers crossed and I
actually said a couple of prayers. I made some
promises to God, "Just give me Pynchon, God." I’m not
going to tell you what I promised God, but I have not
delivered yet. (laughs)

RB: Perhaps the subject for your next book.

DH: Anyway, one the day the fax comes over and it’s
the answers. I was so shocked...I went into such a
tizzy over it that I had to just leave the house and
just pace around the streets. He couldn’t have been
better, really. I must say that I don’t suffer any
delusions that this a testament to the grandness that
is me or any such thing. I am convinced by the nature
of his answers that his regard and love for Richard
Fariña runs very, very deep.

RB: Don’t sell yourself short. That is an endorsement.

DH: Well, he did say some nice things about Lush Life
in his note. And he’s read this manuscript and didn’t
ask for significant changes. He did ask that I soften
one matter that dealt with his personal life and had
no bearing on my subjects. I thought I could give him
that. It just had to do with his life at Cornell and
his own background.

RB: Do you think about what this book would have been
like without what he gave you?

DH: Oh, I could have done it.

RB: Sure, you would have done it...you were prepared
to do it...

DH: I would have done it. Sure, of course, I was
prepared to do it. But, geez, he was Fariña’s best
friend, his roommate in college, he was his best man
at his wedding to Mimi, he was a pall bearer at his
funeral. He was there. It wouldn’t be the same book
without him. [...] 

<http://www.identitytheory.com/people/birnbaum18.html>




	
		
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