IVIV (0) This Lively Yarn

[Tore Rye Andersen]

John: 

> (a)  Can we agree it doesn't very forcefully suggest itself as having
> been written by Pynchon? There's nothing I can see that's sufficiently
> characterful to stand out as an obvious Pynchon phrasing or usage.

Maybe not forcefully, but I would still say that it is a very safe bet
that Pynchon wrote this. We know that he likes to be in control of how his
books are launched, playing a part in the design of the jacket u.s.w.,
and I don't think he would entrust something as important as the book
description to anyone else. And I do think there are a couple-three
things indicating that Pynchon wrote this (see below).
 
> (b) There's that playing with time again. Never too sure when we really
> are. Tail end of the Psychedelic Sities eh? What, literally, or
> figuratively? Isn't our best guess that the narrative takes place in
> 1970? As with ATD, there aren't too many places in the narrative of IV
> where we can definitively pin it down, time-wise.
 
I think the action can be accurately pinned down to early 1970 (probably
from around February to early spring). On page 98, we learn that "It was 
late winter in Gordita." And later in the same chapter, on p. 107, we hear 
of "the epic surf that hit the north shore of that island [Oahu] back in 
December," and we hear that this surge coincided with the capture of Manson, 
who was taken into custody in December '69. Also the Manson case has yet to 
go into trial (which it did in June 1970).
 
> (d) That "cast of characters includes.." does recall the ATD blurb.
 
Yes, and it also recalls the M&D book description, which also has Pynchon
written all over it:
 
"Along the way they encounter a plentiful cast of characters, including 
Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and Samuel Johnson, as well as a 
Chinese feng shui master, a Swedish irredentist, a talking dog, and a robot 
duck."
 
Almost the same phrase appearing three times in a row on M&D, AtD and IV -
that can't be a coincidence.

> (f) 'Lively yarn' is just about the only phrase in here that I can find
> that suggests itself, to me, as a possible Pynchonism.
 
Once again, you're absolutely right. Pynchon has previously mentioned his 
propensity to spin yarns, so I'd definitely call it a Pynchonism, even
though we may groan at the phrase.

> (h) Would Pynchon really make that 'if you were there, then you . . .
> or, wait, is it . . .' joke at the end? It's kinda stupid and obvious,
> so that does suggest a marketing department at work; on the oteh rhand,
> many of Pynchon's best jokes *are* stupid, so....
 
It recalls the "What year is this again?" from the end of the video: 
another stupid joke which does seem right up his alley.
 
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