Pynchonian author

[Tore Rye Andersen]

>Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2006 09:09:13 -0700 (PDT)
>From: pynchonoid <pynchonoid at yahoo.com>
>Subject: Re: Pynchonian author
>
>- --- The Great Quail <quail at libyrinth.com> wrote:
>
> > Melvin Jules Bukiet
> >
> > His novel "After" was influenced by Gravity's
> > Rainbow, and contains a scene
> > onboard the "Anubis." (The "yacht" mentioned below.)
> >
>
>Now we're talking.   Any other writers who have
>actually built on Pynchon's platform like that,
>incorporated elements of his work in theirs.

Oh yes, lots of other writers - the only problem is that simple allusions 
like that don't automatically make a work pynchonesque. Many cyberpunk 
writers build on Pynchon's creations: For instance, Rudy Rucker's novels 
'Software' and 'Wetware' refer to the well-known plastic Imipolex G, and 
Walter Jon Williams' novel 'Hardwired' include two multinational 
corporations called Yoyodyne and Pointsman Pharmaceuticals A.G. I've spotted 
numerous direct Pynchon references over the years, in works such as Rick 
Moody's The Ice Storm, Lawrence Norfolk's Lemprière's Dictionary, Richard 
Power's The Gold Bug Variations and Operation Wandering Soul, Salman 
Rushdie's The Ground Beneath Her Feet (which includes some of the fictional 
rock bands from Vineland), Lemony Snicket's childrens' books about the 
Baudelaire kids, William Gibson's Pattern Recognition, Count Zero, and 
others, Neil Gaiman's American Gods, etc. etc. The list goes on and on - a 
lot of writers have read and admired Pynchon, and many writers have probably 
felt inspired by him as well and wish to pay him hommage with a reference or 
two, but in most cases their works can't be called properly pynchonesque.
In other words: it's pretty easy to find authors who speak glowingly of 
Pynchon's achievements and refer directly to his novels in both interviews 
and their own work, but it's quite hard to find authors who successfully 
emulate him.

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