Re. A digression...

[John Carvill]

Elliott 'Chewy' Mintz & Clayton 'Bloody' Chiclitz eh? I would say this
is right on the edge between being just a menthol confectionery -related
coincidence, and a more significant correspondence.

I've long pondered the possible connection between Pynchon & Dylan.
Attempts to rouse the p-list on this subject have always failed. Of
course there is the Hajdu book, but as far as I can recall it doesn't
definitively state whether Dylan attended Mimi Baez's wedding. In any
case they definitely were acquainted, to what extent we can't be certain
at this stage. 

Either way, my speculation is that Pynchon likely took a dim view of
Dylan, due to his relations with both Baez sisters and with Richard
Farina. Farina got overshadowed on the literary side by Pynchon, and on
the singer-songwriter side by Bob. And while Farina once wrote a fawning
piece about Dylan, describing him as someone audiences should rush to
see now, while they still can, 'like some kind of James Dean figure who
could be here today, mangled on a motorcycle tomorrow', Dylan later
slammed Farina as a fake, songwriter-wise, and of course Farina later
had a fatal encounter with a motorbike, whereas Bob escaped his own bike
crash, adding to his mystique and conveniently excusing him from meeting
some of his snowballing backlog of commitments, one of which was to
write a novel. Pynchon reportedly told Jules Siegel, when the latter
told him he was going to interview Dylan, that Jules would be better off
interviewing the Beach Boys. There are a *lot* of 60s musicians named in
'Vineland', though not Dylan. Paradoxically, there are what seem to be a
number of Dylan references sprinkled through that book, eg. Dylan's
"another lifetime, one of toil and blood" (from Shelter From The Storm)
perhaps influencing Pynchon's "in our world of toil and blood". And of
course, Pynchon has tried his hand at writing the odd 'song'. Overall it
seems unlikely that Pynchon would remain unfamiliar with Dylan's work,
unless he really harboured such a strong grudge against Dylan for
succeeding where Farina failed, both in terms of becoming an icon and
getting up again after the crash.
 
The Dylan Encyclopedia is great by the way. If you don't like Bono (and
who does?), look up the entry for U2, you'll enjoy his description of
Bono joining Dylan for the finale of his tour at Slane Castle in
Ireland.

Cheers
JC





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