Pynchon on his characters

[Mark Kohut]

I suggest that Pynchon does want to be "figured out"--- in an old-fashioned way...in conversation,
person to person, the way most of the world used to be----

Writing about him ala Hollander is what he does not like. Why? 

One thought I come back to is his
belief that we are all tourists now [V.]. Writing about him is like being a tourist instead of
living one's own life. [Notice he tells Hollander to write but not about him]



----- Original Message ----
From: Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at gmail.com>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Sent: Saturday, May 16, 2009 4:20:19 PM
Subject: Re: Pynchon on his characters


----- Original Message ----- From: "Rob Jackson" <jbor at bigpond.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 16, 2009 7:14 AM
Subject: Re: Pynchon on his characters


>> Didn't realise Hollander had a letter from Pynchon ... or that he sold
> it ...

I don't recall his ever mentioning it on the p-list or in the few private correspondences I ever had with him.

I can well imagine the letter didn't sit well with Hollander (beyond the rejection of the publishing idea).

Although the letter was formally polite, still there was a hint of annoyance and sarcasm in it.

Pynchon pretty obviously doesn't like people trying to figure him out.

I suspect he both likes it and doesn't like it--Oscar Wilde said the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.

It would be interesting to see what Hollander said in his letter to Pynchon--anyone know?


P.