Fwd: "Thomas Pynchon said, grandly"

[bob mccart]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: bob mccart <lebishar at gmail.com>
Date: May 13, 2007 12:04 AM
Subject: Re: "Thomas Pynchon said, grandly"
To: Daniel Harper <daniel.e.harper at gmail.com>

I was pretty sure the story was that Penguin wanted to issue a new pClassics
version of GR, and Pynchon said that was OK as long as Miller did the cover.
So wasn't GR already in the pclassics before this. I get the feeling that
this 'quote' is really a false general statement with quotes around it.

On 5/12/07, Daniel Harper <daniel.e.harper at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Oh, I love these covers... and never even realized it was all from the
> same publisher! Silly Daniel.
>
>
> Comics, of course, are an art of compression. But when
> > it comes to cover illustration, that compression has
> > to evoke the larger world of the book. In his design
> > for Thomas Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow," Frank Miller
> > — yes, that Frank Miller, creator of "Sin City" and
> > "The 300" — frames an upended V-2 rocket knifing
> > downward through a speckled and blackened bomb crater.
> > Once seen, never forgotten.
>
>
>
> This is the edition that I just bought. And yes, the cover art was part of
> the reason for my choice of that particular edition. Also great is the use
> of the inside flaps on the front and back of the book, which include the
> opening and closing passages of the book. It's a brilliant design. (Love Sin
> City, too.)
>
>
> Likewise, Charles Burns'
> > jacket for Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel "The Jungle"
> > features the flayed head of a cow, its single eye
> > looking very much alive and reproachful. These images
> > sock and shock you.
>
>
> ...much the way the book shocked its original audience. (As a microbiology
> geek, I can't help but love the microscope slide on the back, either.)
>
>
> Other jackets offer a denser and more verbal
> > experience. Chris Ware's work for "Candide" is so
> > typically elliptical that you can spend nearly as much
> > time with it as with the novel.
>
>
> Possibly my all-time favorite cover art. I own the text in a Norton
> Anthology, but considered buying the book for the cover art alone.
>
>
> >
> > Most often the artists are selected by Penguin art
> > director Paul Buckley, but occasionally authors chose
> > for themselves. Thomas Pynchon said, grandly: "Sure,
> > I'll put 'Gravity's Rainbow' in your series — but you
> > have to get Frank Miller." Amazingly, they did.
>
>
>
> I can't believe the reticent Pynchon would publicize these kinds of
> details. Does anyone have a source for that?
>
> <snip rest>
>
> Yeah, this whole thing is a great example of good art being used to
> heighten the experience of reading the book. So many book covers are dull
> and lifeless (even those that are attempting to shock), but these Penguin
> covers are eye-catching and memorable even if you don't know it's all one
> company.
>
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