For the use of dictionaries and other extraneous materials

[davemarc]

Henry Miller wrote an essay, "Early Reading," in which he celebrated the
dictionary. An excerpt:

"I had believed, as everyone does, that in obtaining a definition one got
the meaning of, or shall I say the 'truth,' about a word. But that day,
shifting from derivation to derivation, thereby stumbling upon the most
amazing changes in meaning, upon contradictions and reversals of earlier
meanings, the whole framework of lexicography began to slither and
slide...."

Miller was writing about his beloved Funk & Wagnall's unabridged dictionary,
but I think his words are extremely relevant in terms of Pynchon's writing.
The essay can be found in Miller's collection *The Books in My Life*.

d.