TPPM Watts: (2) Introduction

[Paul Nightingale]

Pynchon writes in anticipation of the first anniversary of the riot
(so-called: perhaps rising, or rebellion?) in Watts in August 1965. His
essay is triggered by the Deadwyler affair in May 1966, but "[i]n the
back of everybody's head, of course, is the same question: Will there be
a repeat of last August's riot?". Given a publication date in June, this
opening reference is 'topical' (as defined by the amnesia that dictates
news values); however, the concluding reference to the Easter arts
festival indicates he had been planning/drafting since the previous
year, if not longer. This latter view is corroborated by the brief
reference in Mike Davis' City of Quartz (1990), where Pynchon's essay is
discussed in the context of contemporary political art and the cultural
renaissance in Watts (67-69).

Specifically:

"... the Watts Rebellion, as well as the police attack on peaceful
anti-war demonstrators at Century City in July 1967, politically
galvanised artists and writers on the first broad scale since the
Hollywood witch-hunt. Pynchon wrote a stirringly sympathetic and
unpatronising piece called 'A Journey into the Mind of Watts' (really a
meditation on urban segregation) ..." (Davis, 67).

A more detailed discussion appears in David Seed's The Fictional
Labyrinths of Thomas Pynchon (1988: 151-156). Seed describes the essay
as "a useful gloss on the values of Lot 49", and Davis also discusses
the Watts essay in relation to CoL49, as does Brownlie in Thomas
Pynchon's Narratives (2000), so I'll come back to this.

Seed continues:

"He wrote the piece partly at the invitation of Kirkpatrick Sale who was
then editor of the New York Times Magazine, and partly, in the words of
the current culture editor, 'from his concern for Watts'. Pynchon knew
Sale from his Cornell days when he was editor of the Daily Sun. His
article, 'A Journey Into The Mind of Watts' appeared in the NYT Magazine
for 12 June, 1966 and was illustrated with photographs showing police
cars cruising the area, street scenes, a dominoe parlour, etc." (Seed,
151, with punctuation reproduced faithfully).