Pynchon on his characters

[Paul Mackin]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Kohut" <markekohut at yahoo.com>
To: "Paul Mackin" <mackin.paul at gmail.com>; <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Cc: "pynchon -l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 17, 2009 6:18 AM
Subject: Re: Pynchon on his characters



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]

Me:
Isn't Hollander the main purveyer of the idea that some of P's writing 
reflects some kind of resentment for the alleged fact that the prominence 
and well-being of the Pynchon "family" in America have been unjustly 
diminished by the workings of history?

That kind of thing might be a little annoying.

If I'm misrepresenting H. someone please tell me and I'll apologize.


P




----- 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.