P writing on drugs? Re: On The Road (Destination: Starbucks)

[pynchonoid]

NYPLers will be able to fill you in on the interaction
they had with the future wife of that writer who
complained so bitterly, first in Playboy, later in a
book he produced here on Pynchon-l, that Pynchon was
stealing his woman, back in the day (around the time
M&D came out).  It sounds like you may have met her.

FYI, my only interest in Morris is that he focus on
Pynchon and not on me in his posts. It would be nice
if he could add something interesting to the
discussion, but that's a bit too much to hope for, I'm
afraid.

Again, (1) there's a big difference between writing
about drugs and describing the experience of being on
drugs (pot, lsd, etc.) in a novel,  and (2) actually
taking the drugs and getting high and then trying to
write and revise and prepare a novel for publication.
Just because (1) is true doesn't make (2) true, too.

If "Morris" finds that disctinction difficult to
understand, maybe somebody else can break it down
better than I can.


--- Will Layman <willl at fieldschool.org> wrote:

> I know that the story I'm about to tell won't decide
> this dispute or,  
> for that matter, seem particularly credible (indeed,
> I don't actually  
> know that it's credible), but here it is.
> 
> I'm a high school teacher, and one day -- around
> 1999 or 2000, I  
> think -- the aunt of one of my students was in my
> office.  Don't want  
> to say her name for, I hope, obvious reasons.  She
> looked at my  
> bookshelf and saw both LINELAND (the Jules Siegel
> book about Pynchon- 
> l) and a bunch of Pynchon's books, and she plucked
> LINELAND off the  
> shelf.
> 
> "Oh, are you interested in Thomas Pynchon?"  I asked
> her.
> 
> "I know him," she said, as she flipped through the
> book.
> 
> Imagine my reaction.  I think I stammered something
> about how you  
> don't run into one of Pynchon's friends every day.
> 
> "Actually I lived with him for a while, in
> California."
> 
> Omigod omigod omigod, I'm thinking.
> 
> She called him Tom.  She said she had spoken to him
> on the phone once  
> in the last five of six years (which would have been
> the mid-late  
> '90s), but they were no longer close.  She told me
> that he was  
> working on GR when she was with him.  She said that
> one of the  
> characters in GR was obviously based on her.
> 
> I felt I shouldn't ask her any questions about him
> personally,  
> because I didn't want to put her in a position of
> having to refuse to  
> answer.  But I did mention that some people thought
> he wrote GR while  
> stoned.  She said, "Well, this was California in the
> [late '60s,  
> early '70s -- I can't recall the years she was
> actually referencing],  
> so . . . .  But, really, how could you write all of
> this if you were  
> high?"  Obviously, I'm paraphrasing her.
> 
> Every time I saw her after that, I wanted to mention
> Pynchon, quiz  
> her, somehow draw more out of her, but I demurred. 
> Her niece has  
> graduated and I haven't seen her since (and probably
> won't see her  
> again).
> 
> Was she telling me the truth?
> 
> -- Will Layman
> 
> On Oct 23, 2006, at 11:15 AM, David Morris wrote:
> 
> > OK, I'll try to make it clearer for you:
> >
> > I contend that some portions of GR were most
> likely written under the
> > influence of drugs.  I have no idea if Pynchon was
> so wasted that he
> > couldn't remember what he intended the next day,
> but it's not entirely
> > unbelievable.
> >
> > I also contend that they can be useful in reading
> GR.
> >
> > Was that dogged enough for you?
> >
> > David Morris
> >
> > On 10/23/06, pynchonoid <pynchonoid at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >> For the record, in the several times I've read
> >> Gravity's Rainbow, I have indeed noticed that
> some of
> >> the characters use or discuss marijuana, LSD,
> cocaine,
> >> and other psychoactive substances. We've
> discussed
> >> many of those passages right here on Pynchon-l,
> if
> >> "Morris" can't quite remember, understandable
> enough
> >> given the hard time he appears to have just
> following
> >> an intelligent discussion (not to mention trying
> to
> >> keep up with the smart guys), he can feel free to
> >> refresh his memory in the archives.
> >>
> >> As usual, this response to my post misses the
> >> fundamental point, that writing about drugs
> doesn't
> >> necessarily mean the novelist is taking drugs
> while
> >> writing, there is such a thing as learning about
> >> experiences indirectly, from the people who have
> in
> >> fact had them, and it's also possible that
> Pynchon
> >> himself may have personal experience with some
> illegal
> >> substances (he seems to endorse some kind of use
> of
> >> marijuana, in the Slow Learner intro) that he
> recalled
> >> when he was writing some parts of GR.
> >>
> >> Nobody else was in the room when Pynchon
> supposedly
> >> made this statement - that, plus the author's
> >> decades-long quest to insult Pynchon, makes me
> doubt
> >> the veracity of this report.
> >>
> >> best,
> >> pynchonoid
> >>
> >> --- David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> > GR is drenched in pot, LSD, and who knows what
> else.
> >> >  It's as obvious as hell, and doesn't require
> inside knowledge.
> >>> If you can't see it, or don't want to, fine. 
> Have it your way.
> >> >
> >> > David Morris> > >
> 
> 


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