Postmodernism: The Key Figures

[jbor]

>From Hans Bertens and Joseph Natoli (eds). _Postmodernism: The Key Figures_.
Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2002, p. 261.

                                42

                          Thomas Pynchon

                          Dominic Pettman

  *Someday he will know everything, and still be as impotent as before.*
                                        Byron the Bulb (Pynchon 1975: 654)

To many literary scholars and critics, Thomas Pynchon is the quintessential
postmodern author. More than a mere recluse, "Thomas Pynchon" is the
proverbial signifier without a verifiable signified; a writer whose personal
mythology is as complex, ironic, and enigmatic as his body of work. In the
1960s and 1970s, when articles by Foucault and Barthes were announcing the
death (or at least the demotion) of the author, Pynchon was explicitly
deconstructing the established hierarchies between the key coordinates of
author, biography, genius, and text.
    The scholarly fetish of the author -- as opposed to the author-function
-- was quickly thwarted by any attempt to profile or interview Pynchon.
Nobody seemed to know where he lived, or even what he looked like. Only one
photograph attested to his actual existence, and this dated back to his
college days. Indeed, the mystery surrounding Pynchon was further enhanced
by his decision to send a double-talking comedian to accept his National
Book Award in 1974. (Such an archetypal "postmodern absence" was later
satirized by Malcolm Bradbury in his 1987 novel _Mensonge_.) The
interminable attempt to uncover the "truth" about Pynchon uncannily mirrors
the fruitless quests of his characters. It is this apparent need for "facts"
-- for epistemological certainty -- which gives the narrative momentum in
all of Pynchon's works. [...]

Just picked up my copy on the weekend. Entries on Hayden White, Robert
Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, Gramsci, Ethan and Joel Coen, Borges,
Bakhtin, Louis Althusser (53 in all). Despite some notable oversights (and
the title of _V._ misprinted), it looks like a very handy reference.

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