Pynchon, recluse, the Subway, celebrity, etc.

[Malignd]

<<Either that, or it's a subtle and friendly way of
telling "celebrity culture" to fuck off?>>

This is Scoop journalism.  The idea of using one’s
stature and credibility to attain a forum or
responding to queries made because of one’s stature
and credibility has little to do with “celebrity
culture.”

<<<...I don't recall seeing many fiction writers --
not even the most famous -- popping up as a talking
head to discuss war and peace.>>

<<Salman Rushdie might be an exception  ...>>

Salman Rushdie yes, but he’s not an exception.  As
previously noted, Roth, Mailer, Sontag.  Harold
Pinter, also.

<<I think it's great that he acts out his beliefs.>>

I’m not sure what, in his public reluctance (if that’s
an acceptable term) and silence constitutes acting out
a belief. 

<<Pynchon's "V" suggested to me a frustration with the
partisan nature of modern politics.

If that is so, why would he endorse a "side" when he
believes the whole system is bunkum?>>

One can speak to much that’s going on in the world
without taking an overtly partisan side.  He's also,
save for log-rolling blurbs, and a review of Love in
the Time of Cholera, had little to say about
literature, which is, if not unfortunate,
disappointing.

<<"Since the attacks, I stopped taking subways. That's
the biggest change in my everyday life. I used to go
everywhere riding the subways, but now I never take
subways because I'm afraid of chemical weapons. There
is a precedent of the sarin attacks in Tokyo and the
casualties from the biological weapon called anthrax
are spreading. I will not be surprised if chemical
weapons are used against us anytime soon."

<<... In conversing about his own concerns, Pynchon
doesn't cite imaginary threats--he cites precedence,
including an example that a  Japanese audience would
know.>>

If you think not riding the NY Subway because of sarin
attacks in Tokyo is a reasonable and rationale
response, that’s fine.

All I’m suggesting in this string is that Pynchon
could easily have more actively participated in the
world of letters without doing damage to his privacy,
and his readership would now be far richer for it.  It
need not have thrust him into some imagined cult of
celebrity.  That it might be problematic for Pynchon
now is a situation largely of his own creation. 

One might argue that he does write the occasional
article and their infrequency adds to their weight. 
But by that measure, It’s doubly disappointing that
his public comments to Japanese Playboy were so banal
and inept.  



	
		
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