unsubstantiated rumor that Melanie Jackson denied Playboy Japan "interview"

[pynchonoid]

Perhaps the p-lister who called Melanie Jackson's
office would let us know the results of the call? When
this particular story - not the rumor that jbor has
offered about a telephone conversation with  Melanie
Jackson herself - came around before, the story of a
phone call to her office provided no conclusive
evidence to undermine the authenticity of the Playboy
Japan interview with Pynchon.

--- pynchonoid <pynchonoid at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Convenient, that anonymous source of yours.  And you
> got it, what, second-hand (somebody you know got
> this
> statement from Melanie Jackson?) or third-hand
> (somebody you know knows somebody who got this
> statement from Melanie Jackson?), or do you even
> know
> how many people have passed this rumor around before
> it got to you?
> 
> Apparently you haven't verified this with Melanie
> Jackson.  I assume you would have let us know that.
> 
> If Pynchon had made such a statement, through his
> agent, certainly it would have been publicized --
> his
> every move, or rumors about his every move, are
> communicated through the media these days, cf. his
> appearance on the The Simpsons, the recent New
> Yorker
> cartoon of Pynchon and his next book.
> 
> This so-called "denial" - thoroughly unsubstantiated
> -
> is not enough to counter the physical fact of the
> interview's publication in Playboy Japan, the
> magazine's assurance that the interview is
> authentic.
> 
>  If you want to discredit this interview, or the
> conditions under which it took place, why don't you
> contact Melanie Jackson or Pynchon and find out
> yourself, instead of trying to disseminate an
> unsubstantiated rumor? 
> 
> A respectable editor would never publish this sort
> of
> claim, except perhaps in a gossip column. 
> 
> A similar rumor has been passed around before (and
> was
> mentioned in some of the p-list correspondence
> awhile
> back, I believe - you might want to go through the
> archives before you make the claim that it wasn't) ,
> although when I heard it, the phone call was made to
> "Jackson's office" and the person who made the call
> did not claim to talk with Melanie Jackson, but only
> to somebody who answered the phone and did not give
> a
> name; I forget if the person who answered the phone
> was said to be a man or a woman. I also heard that a
> follow-up call to the Melanie Jackson agency
> produced
> a non-committal response, that the person who
> answered
> didn't know anything about it.
> 
> If you want to undermine the interview in an
> authoritative way, you're going to have to do some
> research of your own, jbor.  A third- or fourth- or
> fifth-hand rumor won't cut it, because of the
> evidence
> of the published interview itself, the magazine's
> defense, and the fact that Pynchon's has apparently
> not challenged it legally or otherwise.
> 
> Here's the advice I'd give a rookie reporter if I
> were
> the assigning editor on this story:  Start with a
> call
> to Melanie Jackson and see if you can corroborate
> this
> rumor you've suddenly "discovered".  If that doesn't
> work, try faxing a letter to her, or put it in the
> mail. 
> 
> At the same time, contact Pynchon's publisher with
> the
> same questions.  And, query Playboy Japan as well. 
> And, Pynchon Notes, which took some steps to
> investigate this (I'm not sure to what extent, but I
> believe PN has more information about this matter
> than
> has been mentioned on the p-list or elsewhere
> publicly). 
> 
> Then - and this is the important part, for an
> ethical
> reporter concerned with the integrity of the story,
> that is - wait until you get a definitive response
> from one or more of them before trying to pass off
> the
> rumor as fact.
> 
> Please let us know what you've found out.  It would
> make a good article, if properly researched and
> vetted
> - for PN, or perhaps for a newspaper or magazine
> with
> an interest in serious literature. 
> 
> Good luck.
> 
> 
> --- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
> 
> > on 9/11/04 9:31 AM, jbor wrote:
> > I've since had it on good authority that a "denial
> > that P gave the Playboy
> > Japan interview" was provided over the phone to
> one
> > of the New York
> > p-listers by Melanie Jackson, Pynchon's agent and
> > wife.
> >
> 
> =====
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