More on the blurb brouhaha

[jbor at bigpond.com]

Another blogger:
"[...] The Amazon synopsis not only bore all the hallmarks of Pynchon's 
style, but carried his byline as well. Real, or a hoax? Patterson 
initially wrote that the publicity chief of the book's publisher 
Penguin "disavow[ed]" all knowledge of the writeup's authorship, and 
added that Amazon.com hadn't sorted out what its response would be and 
that, unsurprisingly, Pynchon wasn't returning Patterson's phone call. 
The next day, however, Patterson posted a clarification. The blurb was 
Pynchon's handiwork after all, according to Penguin, which, Patterson 
corrected, did not disclaim the post. What a great bit of PR! [...]"

http://jstheater.blogspot.com/

On 26/07/2006:

>> And that Associated Press story is literally everywhere:
>>
>> http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=49568

And that's just the most obscure rag to have picked it up. All the 
major US dailies, the Guardian, CNN. By my last count, there were over 
two dozen on-line versions of that AP report out there.

And now some of them are starting to print it together with what's 
becoming the iconic image of TRP: sending himself up as a cartoon 
author with a paper bag over his head on the Simpsons.

Marketing 101. Product branding. In TRP's case, it's the "reclusive 
author" tag. Along with the staged controversy of the "now you see it, 
now you don't" blurb (and the stereotyped notoriety of Pynchon's 
on-line fans as cult-worshipping nerdlingers) it has won this new book 
maximum exposure, created a "buzz". Had the book been announced 
"normally", even with the Pynchon blurb attached, it would have been 
reported in Publisher's Weekly and probably rated a couple of lines 
here and there in y'r more highbrow Arts News columns. With the Slate 
TV critic on board at the get-go, this story's getting mileage in the 
celebrity gossip columns.

It's great.

And that second Simpsons appearance, where all he does is make puns on 
the titles from his back catalogue, begins to make a lot more sense.

best