pynchon-l-digest V2 #5016

[Mike Weaver]

Apologies if these have been posted - can't keep up with the list 
natter at the moment only 16 pages into the book as well!

 From the letter column of yesterday's Guardian Review section, 
responses to the Ian Rankin article. There was a nice little cartoon 
by the first letter:

Pynchon territory

If Thomas Pynchon ("Reader beware...", November 18) had ever driven 
10 miles north of Dundee into the county of Angus, he might have 
found himself in Inverarity. Consisting of a church, a school and a 
handful of farms, Inverarity has no centre and is the kind of place 
you would not know you were travelling through unless you already 
knew it was there. It nestles in the shade of Carrot Hill and it 
comes to an end in a tiny village named Whig Street. "Thomas Pynchon 
and the geography of Angus" sounds just like the fundable doctoral 
thesis title that eluded Ian Rankin all those years ago. He may well 
find that no one has researched it yet. It might not be too late for him.
Dr Bob Cant
London


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Ian Rankin's celebration of Thomas Pynchon, who led me down many a 
blind alley as a research student in the 1970s, reminded me of why I 
went there; the dazzling versatility of style, wit and imagination 
and just how much fun you can have with names. When I opened my copy 
of his story "Lowlands" which begins "At half past five in the 
afternoon Dennis Flange was still entertaining the garbage man", I 
knew I was on my way back.
Christine Keogh
Gargrave, North Yorkshire