Tanner on naming in TCOL49

[David Kipen]

Me, I've always like the way Pynchon's nickname for her, Oed, recalls a
certain multivolume reference work...

On 10/6/06, Martin Hinks <mhinks at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> Apologies if this has been done before - I did search the archives -
> honest!
>
> Just read Tanner's not too shabby "Thomas Pynchon" for the first time
> and was struck by an apparent oversight in the discussion of the names
> of Oedipa and Mucho Maas.
>
> Tanner points out that Maas, among other things, could be
> semi-homophonic with "my ass" as in "Oedipa My Ass" but seems to
> overlook the fact that in Spanish the pronunciation of Maas will
> equate to "más" meaning "more". This is also pointed to by the fact
> that Mucho in Spanish is "much" or, for an apter play on the title, "a
> lot" and therefore his entire name translates as "a lot more".
>
> Given the themes of the book is this not a more fitting analysis of the
> name?
>
> Or am I over-reading the situation?
>
> --
> Martin Hinks
> http://www.m-s-d.net
>
>


-- 
All finest,

David Kipen
Literature Director
National Endowment for the Arts
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue #722
Washington DC, 20506
202-682-5787
kipend at arts.gov
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