another sighting of rumo[u]r of new Pynchon book...

[Paul Mackin]

On Tue, 2004-11-09 at 06:47, jbor wrote: 
> The French literary gossip article leads off with a sly little dig about how
> Pynchon's new book is "the best kept secret in America", as Erik pointed out
> when he kindly posted the article to the list. Thinking about the way it was
> phrased there I did think it noteworthy that info from within the U.S. about
> the new novel has been non-existent, and similarly that info from there
> about what Pynchon has been up to has often either been just plain wrong
> (the Tinasky hoax) or else picked up by way of some auxiliary report. For
> example, the news about the Simpsons appearances wasn't mentioned until
> after the fact -- gleaned from promos for the new series rather than from
> any specific information that Pynchon had signed up or was even considering
> doing the show. Same with the Intro for the Centenary edition of 1984, the
> fax exchange with David Hajdu etc.
> 
> I'm not sure how an observation like that can be an affront to anyone in
> particular, let alone the entire American nation, but so be it -- it
> certainly wasn't my intention. What the latest "failure of U.S.
> intelligence" (goak) does illustrate is that Pynchon and his publishers have
> been extremely effective in not leaking anything about the new book (or much
> of anything else) to the media or publishing industry spooks in the U.S.,
> and that they have maintained this secrecy deliberately, for whatever
> reasons, and it might be interesting to speculate on what those reasons are.

 Perhaps the New York people in a position to know have been warned
under pain of mass downsizing that all leaks are to come from above.

These days . . . .


> At the other extreme, of course, the two Simpsons appearances (and the 1984
> Intro) have brought Pynchon's name and reputation and voice to new levels of
> prominence in the public sphere -- and in a very unusual way -- over the
> last year or so, just in time for the release of the new novel.
> 
> I think it's worth keeping an eye on this sort of contextual stuff.
> 
> As far as the Playboy Japan "interview" goes, nearly three years on now, if
> it is ever eventually acknowledged as something Pynchon agreed to do, then
> it'd be great to see the English transcipt of his comments properly
> published somewhere. The remark about Osama bin Laden as Bush's "rodeo
> clown" does seem as if it could be prescient in the light of subsequent
> events, and maybe in its original form the sense of his comments is more
> intelligible than in the current garbled retranslation from the Japanese. On
> the other hand, the fact that those who promote it here have remained
> obstinately unwilling even to consider seeking verification of its status
> from Pynchon's representatives leaves a lot of room for doubt, particularly
> in the light of the whole Tinasky debacle.
> 
> best
> 
> >> on 5/11/04 12:54 AM, Erik T. Burns wrote:
> >>> 
> >>> "the best-kept secret in America"?
> >>> from Le Nouvel Observateur's culture gossip column.
> >>> etb 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> Téléphone rouge
> >>> 225 Words
> >>> 04 November 2004
> >>> Le Nouvel Observateur
> >>> 145
> >>> 2087
> >>> French
> >>> (c) 2004 Le Nouvel Observateur
> >>> 
> >>> Téléphone rouge
> >>> 
> >>> <snip> C'est le secret le mieux gardé d'Amérique: , l'auteur culte de
> >>> «l'Arc-en-ciel de gravité», l'écrivain silencieux qui a toujours refusé tout
> >>> contact avec les journalistes, aurait entrepris la rédaction d'un nouveau
> >>> roman, selon Michael Naumann, directeur de « Die Zeit » et ancien
> >>> collaborateur de l'éditeur de Pynchon, Henry Holt: l'action se déroulerait à
> >>> Gottingen au début du xxe siècle, et narrerait les aventures d'une jeune
> >>> mathématicienne russe. <snip>
> >>> 
> >>> 
>