a bit on an aspect of electricty in Pynchon

[Mark Kohut]

V., who is 37 in 1917 was therefore born in 1880. 

Electric streetlights, a twinkle in V., permeate AtD harshly, negatively, inhumanly.

The first electric streetlights lit up the natural nighttime in 1880.

--- On Tue, 7/21/09, Campbel Morgan <campbelmorgan at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Campbel Morgan <campbelmorgan at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Pynchon Character Names
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Tuesday, July 21, 2009, 6:49 AM
> It's available at the library, as is
> Inherent Vice (cool cover art).
> As are a pile of books, artciles, journals, documents,
> etc., seems the
> Pynchon industry has not been hurt by the recession. I'd
> love to read
> something on Pynchon and photography/electricity. I am
> reminded now,
> as I re-read AGTD and after a quick search of "Pynchon" in
> the
> electronic stacks of NYPL, of Pynchon's near obsession with
> his
> ancestors, those William Pynchon writings on Religion,
> those TRP books
> on Chemistry ...much as Hawthorne was obsessed with his,
> and how the
> two authors are entwined, and how much Pynchon "follows"
> Hawthorne's
> advice on writing Romance (see the Preface to Hawthorne's)
> and, while
> this is obvious enough I suppose, Pynchon writes
> Romance/Satire of the
> type Hawthorne/Melville wrote during the so called
> "American
> Renaissance," and how Holgrave and his narrative, and
> photography in
> HSG, is recycled in AGTD, with a Jamesian twist or two.
> 
> On Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 4:29 AM, John Bailey<sundayjb at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > Has anyone heard of this? Or own it?
> >
> > http://www.amazon.com/Pynchon-Character-Names-Patrick-Hurley/dp/0786434589
> >
> > I can't think of another author with a comparably odd
> book devoted to them.
> >
>