Bookforum: Pynchon from A to V

[jbor at bigpond.com]

http://www.bookforum.com/pynchon.html

Pretty slim pickin's on the whole, apart from the feature piece by 
former Viking editor Gerald Howard. (Which, even so, ends up by being a 
tribute to Corlies Smith more than anything.)

Corroborating Pynchon's negative evaluation of _Lot 49_ in the _SL_ 
'Intro' (p.22) in Howard's reminiscence is this:

[...] On March 5, 1970, Pynchon wrote to Cork to apologize that he was 
not going to make an April 1 deadline and asking that it be moved to 
July 1, 1970. He thanked him for his forbearance and ended by 
expressing his worry, with what degree of irony only he can say for 
sure, that the novel "could be the biggest piece of shit since The 
Crying of Lot 49." [...]

Note how Pynchon is even more scathing and colloquially to the point 
about _Lot 49_ in this "private" letter than he is in his public 
introduction to the short story collection. But the negative 
self-assessment is consistent. So much for the dumb-ass theory that the 
_SL_ 'Intro' is tongue-in-cheek.

And this, on Corlies Smith's editorial advice regarding the manuscript 
of Pynchon's first novel:

[...] One small shocker is that Cork somehow thought the McClintic 
Sphere material angled the book unhelpfully in the direction of a 
"Protest novel" on "the Negro Problem" and suggested it be cut. 
Pynchon, thank Monk, thoughtfully but firmly demurred. [...]

It'd be interesting to see whether in fact Pynchon did make at least 
some concessions to Smith's suggestions, as Luc Herman's comments about 
the original manuscript seem to indicate. Nevertheless, it's a further 
demonstration of the strength of Pynchon's commitment to the Civil 
Rights cause.

best