Pynchon's titles (was ...

[jbor at bigpond.com]

> Rcfchess at aol.com (Rcfchess at aol.com) wrote:
>
>> On the other hand, "Slow Learner" is rather amusing/ironic, if it's
>> self-referential; wonder if it was TP's idea or the publisher's or
>> agent's...?!
>> Anyone have any idea?
>

On 21/08/2005, at 12:55 AM, Michael J. Hußmann wrote:

> Given how he makes short shrift of some of his earlier works in the
> introduction, I suppose the title was his idea. BTW, the title's German
> translation ("Spätzünder") isn't literal, but captures the meaning
> precisely. Literally, a "Spätzünder" is a bomb exploding only some time
> after it was expected to go off, but is usually applied metaphorically
> to a pupil or student who realizes his or her true potential only quite
> late in his career.

Just to return to this question (having just read an essay in which the 
essayist tries to assert that the story 'Entropy' is wonderful, arguing 
that Pynchon is not "a good critic of his own work"), I agree with 
Michael and the general consensus that it's highly likely that the 
"Slow Learner" title was Pynchon's idea, as it complements the 'Intro' 
he provides for the collection where he (accurately) assesses most of 
those early short stories as being pretty flawed. But the German 
translation also captures another aspect of the title (and the 
'Intro'), in that the self-assessment as a "slow learner" also 
necessarily implies that Pynchon believes or knows that he eventually 
became a very good writer. In fact, it's what's left unstated in the 
'Intro' which is most telling -- that _V._ had been published, though 
nothing more about that novel, is mentioned in an aside, and _GR_ isn't 
referred to at all. Obviously, then, it's those two "great" works 
beside which he's setting the "tiresome", "juvenile" and "delinquent" 
stuff contained in this "Early Stories" volume (and _Lot 49_ as well, 
of which he says "I seem to have forgotten most of what I thought I'd 
learned up till then").

So, it's the fact that he eventually does become a "great writer" which 
validates the label he's giving to himself: "slow learner", or 
"Spätzünder", as the German idiom nicely captures it. In other words, 
the apparent humility of that title (and the 'Intro' itself), actually 
hinges on a fairly healthy ego (about the writer he was ultimately to 
become). I'd say that that's where there's an element of 
tongue-in-cheek.

Btw, hypothetically-speaking, if the argument goes that Pynchon somehow 
polices the German translations of his titles and works, then the fact 
that he "approved" the non-Orwellian title for the German edition of 
the story collection would imply that there was no allusion to _1984_ 
when he originally chose the title for the English edition. Wouldn't 
it? Personally, I still believe that "approval", in the sense that it 
has been used by the German translators, simply indicates the norm -- 
that Pynchon provides assistance and advice to translators where he 
can, i.e. when their queries are pertinent or when he has something 
useful to offer them. He approved of the title "Die Enden der Parabel", 
in other words, i.e. he said he liked it.

best