Pynchon on his characters

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

Make one, two, many Rainbows! Yes, I think that's the essence of Pynchon's
answer ... However, having read all published Hollander-articles at least
twice and having had offlist conversation with the guy for a while, I could
imagine that there's something else, too. While Hollander's insisting on 
the political dimension in Pynchon's work cannot be praised high enough,
his monomanic dogmatism is really difficult to handle. Perhaps Thomas
"every weirdo on the planet seems to be on my wave-length" Pynchon 
did realize this from early on. Just a guess --
 
KFL 

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> Date: Sun, 17 May 2009 03:18:29 -0700
> From: markekohut at yahoo.com
> Subject: Re: Pynchon on his characters
> To: mackin.paul at gmail.com; pynchon-l at waste.org
> CC: pynchon-l at waste.org
>
>
> 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 
> 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" 
> To: 
> 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.
>
>
>
>