The 'Waste' Law | Pynchon's genealogical influences

Wed Nov 21 15:59:35 CST 2007

A more complete version of the story doesn't increase 
the credibility of the official story.

Who is Willie Hinds?

How did he survive?

If I was as demonstratively paranoid as OBA, I'd wonder
about  that 'official' explanation, knowing just how many 
official explanations are cover-ups.

           As all the world knows, Richard and Mimi attended an 
           autograph party on April 30, 1966, at Thunderbird 
           Bookstore in Carmel Valley, then went to the home of 
           Mimi's sister, Pauline, for a surprise party for Mimi's 
           21st birthday. At this party Pauline's friend, Willie 
           Hinds, pulled up on a Harley. Hinds took Richard for 
           a ride on the bike on the rolling hills of Carmel, and 
           they wiped out, throwing Richard across two fences 
           and into an embankment. Hinds survived; Richard 
           was killed instantly.
           	 We will never know why Richard left the party to 
           go on that motorcycle ride, or why he gave Mimi his 
           car keys and wallet before he left. We will never know 
           whether his deathwish was the yearning of his soul or 
           an invention of his art.

           "Sweet mortality, I love to tease your scythe."

http://www.richardandmimi.com/richard.html

But before allowing yourself this opourtunity to follow this red herring to 
its obviously dead end, note that as far as I can tell, the Pynchon Family 
History was easier to find in history books in the olden days. It doesn't 
matter nearly as much WHY Pynchon includes so much of his family's history 
as does the simple fact that he puts SO much of that history in his books. 
It seems to me, at this vantage point, that Tom's family history is the core, 
the spine, of all of Pynchon's books. And most of the time, these people 
appear as a counterforce to the dominant paradigms of their respective 
times. This is new to me, this will take some real time and effort to track
dowm the various threads, but

                                                 EVERYBODY

listen, it's family history. Just try using that key when a passage confuses.

That "Everybody", as in "Now Everybody" is, as far as I can tell, 
William Slothrop/Pynchon's Unitarian heresy. And as far as heresies
go, that's a biggie. It's the King Kong of Heresies.

Slothrop, Broderick
285; Tyrone's father; aka "Schwarzvater" (Jamf), 286; Tyrone's 
dream about, 392; sold experimental rights to Tyrone to Jamf 
for $5000 for Harvard education, 444; hated FDR, 373; 
Paternal Peril "a murderin' fool" 674; 677; 682

Slothrop, Constant (d. 1766)
26; ancestor of Tyrone; tombstone depicts Hand of God 
coming out of a cloud

Slothrop, Mrs. Elizabeth
27; wife of Isaiah

Slothrop, Frederick (d. 1933)
27; Tyrone's grandfather

Slothrop, Hogan
29; Tyrone's brother; his Hawaiian shirt, 184, 201; 
266; 304; "in love with Chiquita Banana" 678; 682; 744

Slothrop, Hogan Jr.
744; son of Hogan Slothrop; [From Pynchon's short 
story "The Secret Integration" in Slow Learner:"the 
doctor's kid, who at the age of eight had taken to 
serious after-bedtime beer-drinking and at the age 
of nine got religion, swore off beer and joined the 
Alcoholics Anonymous, a step his father, who was 
what is know as permissive, gave his blessing" (p.151)]

Slothrop, Lt. Isaiah (d. 1812)
27; ancestor of Tyrone

Slothrop, John
555; son of William Slothrop, who helped his dad get 
the "pig operation" going

Slothrop, Nalline
18; Tyrone's mother; 116; 360; "always happy to see 
young people getting together" 499; 674; letter to 
Joe Kennedy, 682-83; 712

SLOTHROP, Lt.
Tyrone

[Etymological Musings]; See also Slothrop's girls/stars; 
Slothrop's Tarot
Slothrop's girls/stars
Delores, 19; Alice, 19; Gladys, 19; Lorraine and Judy, 
19; Darlene, 19, 271; Katherine, 19; Shirley, 19; "a couple 
of Sallys" 19; "Carolines, Marias, Annes, Susans, Elizabeths" 
19; "Gloria and her nubile mother" 19; Marjorie, 22, 25, 744; 
Norma, 22, 25; Allison, 23; Irene, 23; Jennifer, 23, 271; 
Cynthia, 26; "'What about the girls??'" 91; Madelyn, 252; 
Jenny's ghost, 255-56; Angela, 271; Lucy, 271; Jenny, 
Sally W., Cybele, Catherine, Gretchen, 271

Slothrop, Variable
27; son of Constant

Slothrop, William
21; Tyrone's first American ancestor; 27; 364; came to US in 
1630 on Arabella, 554; On Preterition - published in England, 
burned in Boston, 555 [Available in the HyperArts BookShop - 
Really! sort of...]; returned to England and died there missing 
USA, 556; his hymn, 760; [The "Real" William Slothrop/Pynchon]

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/alpha/s.html

William Slothrop
William Pynchon is Thomas' colonial descendant, born in 
Springfield, Essex, England on 11 October 1590. He married 
Anne Agnes Andrew about 1623. The family emigrated to New 
England on Winthrop's fleet of 1630, Anne dying soon after 
their arrival. A few years later, William married Frances Sanford 
of Dorchester. William was the founder of Springfield, 
Massachusetts and one of the Bay Colony's leaders until his 
publication of a book about justification and redemption, 
The Meritorious Price of our Redemption (1650) 
[Available in the, ahem, HyperArts BookShop].

>From William Pynchon: Merchant and Colonizer (Connecticut 
Valley Historical Museum, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1961), 
by Ruth A. McIntyre, p.33:

The Massachussetts elders were shocked at a layman 
disputing the opinion of learned divines on such a question 
as the nature of Christ's sacrifice and man's justification.

[...]

With the printing of his treatise, The Meritorious Price of our
Redemption...in London, [Pynchon] entered upon the 
exposition of his religious opinions which was to absorb his 
attention until his death. [...] Briefly, he questioned the 
accepted doctrine that Christ had actually endured the Hell 
torments of God's wrath to redeem men's souls. He had 
concluded after extensive study that the price of man's 
redemption was Christ's perfect obedience, of which His 
atonement was "the masterpiece." He could not conceive 
that God's wrath had forced the sinless Christ to bear the 
curse of suffering for man's guilt through imputation.

He returned to England to enjoy greater religious freedom 
and died at Wraysbury, England on 10 October 1662.

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/extra/ety.html#william