Pynchon/Hollander

Mon May 18 12:14:09 CDT 2009

On May 18, 2009, at 9:17 AM, Chris Broderick wrote:

> Robin sez:
>
> Is it conceivable that Pynchon actually has trouble drawing from his  
> own experiences or from the life around him for fictional material?

Robin sez he didn't write this. In fact, I came up with the  
autobiographical option to counter Charles [The Dude} Hollander's all  
encompassing paranoid schema. And the Dude might be right anyway. What  
Pynchon hisself wrote in Slow Learner tells me that personal history  
is an important part of his writing.

Robin Sez [and don't take this personally, I'm being a list nanny and  
this applies to others on the list, sometimes myself]: "Use Plain Text  
Please." It makes it more likely that some people who only get digests  
can read what we come up with here. Some of those people may be  
interested in re-posting our thoughts. And some of those people use  
audio software that will read back:
--0-1843443666-1242663447=:47460 Content-Type: text/html; charset=us- 
ascii <html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></ 
style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman,new  
york,times,serif;font-size:12pt">Robin sez. . .
And they may become discouraged.
> So I say:
>
> First, hi after a long absence.

Hi yerself.

> Second, I really doubt this.  I've heard enough anecdotal evidence  
> of people claiming that this, that or another character are based on  
> them, or that events were based on events in his life.

I KNOW where "San Narcisco" came from.

> Third, any novelist doing anything with narrative is going to  
> incorporate bits of his/her life into their writing.  It's nearly  
> impossible not to do it.  Small wonder his later novels have more to  
> do with family after he himself has developed his own.  I do think  
> that he is nobody's idea of a confessional novelist, creating little  
> pynchons in his books.  But they must resonate with elements of his  
> own life, or he would be a much poorer writer than he is.

Yes.

I'm one of those deluded fools that think OBA's writing is getting  
richer over time.

> Chris Broderick
> www.myspace.com/christophermichaelbroderick
>
> "A good laugh is the best pesticide."
> -Vladimir Nabokov