IV "autobiographical"?

[John Carvill]

> Can I jump both ways at once?

Hell yeah!

If you call IV 'semi-autobiographical', that doesn't necessarily mean
you think it's non-fiction. That doesn't equate to seeing Doc as
Pynchon. I mean, come on. Doc is like Zoyd's spiritual half-brother -
a dopey, likeable, good-hearted, hedonistic,
anything-for-a-quiet-lifer. The difference being that Doc happens to
have fallen into a job that gets him way more involved in the world
and its troubles than he ever would have done otherwise.

I think the perfect metaphor for Doc's character is that gun he
carries: yes he's a 'Private Investigator', and even carries a gun,
but it's hidden beneath his floppy bell-bottomed jeans. It's like the
opposite of Marowe, isn't it? Marlowe the surface tough guy, with the
soft poetic centre. Doc's a dippy hippy on the outside, but has at
least enough inner toughness that he does, if he has to, get that gun
out from under his bell bottoms.

I distrust attempts to force us down one path or another. Is Doc
Pynchon? Yes. No. Definitely. Maybe.