IVIV Aunt Reet

[John Carvill]

> I'm guessing William Gibson wrote Neuromancer with GR on his desk,
> open on those very pages (GR 698-99). And if the Wachowsky brothers
> didn't write The Matrix with GR on their desk, I'm sure Neuromancer
> was on their desk (or disk).

Heh heh. Very good.

Kudos of course to Janos for pointing up the relevance of that heart-to-heart.

There's an obvious flavour of the autobiographical in 'Inherent Vice',
and on the surface (streets) that of course means Gordita/Manhattan
beach, freeways, joints, the general lifestyle and feel of the times,
etc. when Pynchon was writing 'Gravity's Rainbow'. But there's also a
much deeper, way more interesting set of substrata, and here's a prime
example of it: Pyncon's references to the ARPAnet etc. point forwards,
to today's internet age, but also backwards, to the genesis of a book,
GR, which was itself pointing forward. How the 'predictions' re.
technology made in GR, and those more retrospective predictions being
made in IV, relate, is a topic worthy of lengthy consideration.

I think this got largely overlooked at the time, but when The Guardian
published a lengthy pre-publication excerpt from 'Against the Day',
the cover of the Review section was a specially commissioned
illustration, showing (an artist's impression of) Thomas Pynchon,
wearing glasses, head leaning on one hand, the other hand holding a
pen (or is it a pencil?):

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Gpynch.jpg

Significantly, there's also a computer keyboard visible, prompting
thoughts of how Pynchon has now come to regard this technology. And we
subsequently found out - thanks to Tim Ware - that Pynchon had himself
found the appropriate image (that awful hearse thing) for the cover of
IV, whilst surfing the web.

I suppose our best guess would be that he regards the internet much as
he does the Tube - he despises its insidious effects on society, but
is also a frequent user. Simultaneously appalled and entertained,
frightened yet fascinated. Like all of us, he's wondering how long the
current relatively free dispensation will last, how long before the
wave breaks and the Murdochs and Government Agencies and Banks take
over entirely?

Cheers
JC