Hitchens on Pynchon

[Joseph Tracy]

Up front I regard Hitchens as one of the most obnoxious, publicity  
seeking hatchet men of our time though I admit I liked his hatchet  
job on Kissinger. But that was the old Hitchens;
these days Hitchens' politics would line up nicely with Kissinger or  
most of the western war criminals. Anyway it is kind of comical for  
this publicity hound to call Pynchon's reclusiveness suspect.  What  
is the suspicion?

Smart of Pynchon to refuse a meet up with this guy, while Hitchens  
demonstrates why it wouldn't have been a good idea. He never tells us  
why Pynchon called.

Creepy? and he doesn't find advocating mass murder creepy?

On Jun 9, 2010, at 10:27 AM, Henry Musikar wrote:


> Q: You mention being introduced to J.D. Salinger?
>
> A: No, I never was. Oh, I understand. Introduced to his books.  
> That's right.
> I did, however, once get a call from Thomas Pynchon, though, and if
> anything, he's been less approachable. I said, "Yeah, yeah, it's  
> Thomas
> Pynchon." But he established he certainly was Thomas Pynchon. He is  
> a friend
> of my friend Ian McEwan. I made a bid to try and meet up with him  
> and he
> said, "Oh, no, no, that's all right" and hung up.
>
> Q: It's an odd notoriety.
>