Pynchon as "recluse"

[pynchonoid]

M: [...]There are stories--his going about in
disguise, jumping out windows to avoid
journalists--that make it as likely that he is
eccentric and reclusive as it is that he's the quite
normal albeit private person you prefer to imagine.
[...]

I accept the stories about Pynchon that come from
credible sources. These reports about Pynchon usually
concern events approaching half a century ago, when he
was in his 20s and 30s. He seems to have lead a
relatively quiet, private life since then.

What's "normal"? 

M:  [...] The very fact of his extreme desire for
privacy seems
itself eccentric and is probably it's own cause:  a
guy who writes five novels in forty years wouldn't
likely have remained of much interest to a curious
public otherwise. [...]

Pynchon places a high value on his privacy and there's
nothing inherently "eccentric" in this.  Most people
are, after all, no less private, going through life
without being interviewed on television talk shows,
associating with friends, family, work colleagues,
staying out of the public eye -- that's what I'd call
a "normal" kind of life. In a profession that requires
hours of solitude, and where celebrity leads to
burn-out, Pynchon's seems an intelligent practice. But
he's said he doesn't consider himself a recluse, he's
just somebody who talks to the press rarely and to the
greatest degree possible, on his own terms when he
does choose to grant an interview.




	
		
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