Fw: Fwd: On Why Pynchon Will Never Win the Nobel

[Mark Kohut]

Thanks all who shared genuine constructive criticism about this little offering. I learn I
was relying on old stories and rumors about the Swedish Academy
and showing up for the prize. That two winners did not show up in recent years 
refutes that part of my little squib at least.
 
I'm turning glad that I did not get this into a mainstream publication---despite how
well-written it is. (Smile)
 
So, maybe TRPjr will be given the award and, if he writes a speech---he has
done N-F all his life so why not? , then Melanie might deliver it? 
 
I do remember Ms. Lessing's "O Shit, what happened now" response when she
saw all the media in front of her building as she came home after the announcement while
she had been out. 
 
So, if Mr. & Mrs Pynchon could just get into seclusion quickly, if they received a call, maybe he could
avoid the cameras and publicity whether camera-shy or more principled?
 
We might see, who knows now.
 
Thanks.
 


________________________________
From: Kai Frederik Lorentzen <lorentzen at hotmail.de>
To: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 5, 2011 6:32 AM
Subject: Re: Fw: Fwd: On Why Pynchon Will Never Win the Nobel

You've made this kind of statement several times. Two problems, imo:a) Pynchon has changed over the years and is playing a public role now anyway. He's doing blurbs, gives his voice for "The Simpsons", wrote that letter in defense of McEwan.Pynchon even put out an airport novel - Inherent Vice - primarily there for movie adaptation. Since he met his wife and agent, he's not the writer anymore to follow the policy he once coined.Yes, CNN had to pixel his face, but he talked to them on the phone and they put it on the air.This whole issue about Pynchon being 'reclusive' is by now more or less a marketing trick.b) It's true that the Nobel Committee was pissed about Sartre's "I'd better prefer not to" back then.However, to say that "one thing the Swedish Academy wants is a winner who will come to Oslo" is 
putting far too much emphasis on it. Since you mention Elfriede Jelinek: She, who rarely leaves the house, did not come to Oslo! Her speech was read out. And the Swedish Academy knew aboutthis when they gave her the Prize. So I guess Mrs. Jackson could read out Pynchon's speech.    Your whole argument sounds a little bit like ... Sour Grapes.Not only would we all be happy (hey, at least the value of our cultural capital is rising!),Tom and Melanie - I'm sure about that! - would be too. On 05.10.2011 02:34, Mark Kohut wrote: 
My best statement of the argument...
>Came close to mainstream publication in three different outlets...
>So it goes. 
> I've shared On Why Pynchon Will Never Win the Nobel  
>Click to open: 
>	* On Why Pynchon Will Never Win the Nobel 
>  
>On Why Pynchon Will Never Win the Nobel
>Ladbroke’s, the famous odds-maker of almost everything, has just declared Thomas Pynchon the American writer with the best odds to win the Nobel Prize for Literature this year, rumored to
>ba announced next Thursday, October 6. 10 to 1. 
>Don’t take them. You will lose. No matter how much you may believe he deserves it. 
>Why?. As those who have followed and talked within publishing circles about the Nobel Committee agree, the awarding of the Nobel is very important for the prestige of the Nobel. And one thing the Swedish Academy wants is a winner who will come to Oslo, accept the award and give a speech about the importance of literature that may resound as Faulkner’s, say, has. One worth any number of lesser speeches--and writers.  Ever since Jean-Paul  Sartre refused the Prize, we hear,--writers can be so anti-establishment!--we can sum up their concern with  a spin on Groucho’s famous line: The Swedish Academy will never invite into their Club someone who will not join. 
>And Pynchon will not. Ever. Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is--and has always been--the most reclusive major American writer of them all.  No pictures exist beyond a high school and a Navy one. His Cornell University permanent record file is....missing.  Salinger hated all publicity and it led him to New Hampshire after his success; Pynchon believes in privacy deeper than any anti-publicity predilictions. It is part of his coherent, comprehensive vision of human beings in the modern world different than in Salinger. 
>“Don’t follow leaders; watch the parking meters” sings Pynchon contemporary Bob Dylan.  That line can bring Max Weber, the great sociologist, to mind, quoted in and very influential for Gravity's Rainbow and still rippling through Against the Day. In Weber's famous essay "Politics as a Vocation", he touches bottom on how a 'leader' emerges out of any group of people: charisma does it. Charisma: being seen to be differently better--naturally exceptional. People recognize the quality--and want to please whoever has it. A leader is a charismatic individual who can command followers. To want followers, however-- like politicians and religious figures, which are Weber's examples---is where the truth of 'power corrupts' begins. The truth that power corrupts emerges everywhere in Pynchon’s works.  From Gravity's Rainbow: "One of the dearest Postwar hopes: that there should be no room for a terrible disease like charisma." The villain in Vineland,
 is defined as charismatic. Contrast with a deliberately offhand image of a pile of T-shirts used by all in Against the Day.  Mr. Pynchon wants no followers of any kind and the deeper into him one reads, the more one can learn that follow oneself could be Pynchon's equivalent of Socrates' know thyself.
> 
>        I suggest that for Thomas Pynchon, to accept any public adulation, any award, any honor is by definition to be singled out--you  have to read him to get other resonances for this phrase as well--and would be the mirroring of charisma  and a deeply hypocritical act. Many Pynchon fans feel that the awarding of 
>the Nobel to Elfride Jellineck a few years ago, whose body of work includes translating Gravity’s Rainbow into German, was the closest Pynchon will ever get to a Nobel. 
> 
>        However Mr. Pynchon may feel that he has not lived up to his own ideals,-- he may feel slothful, like Dr. Johnson, some writing suggests--- violating this ideal will never happen. A screaming would be heard across his brow.
> 
> 
> 
>Google Docs makes it easy to create, store and share online documents, spreadsheets and presentations. 
>
>
>-- 
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>-- Mark Kohut (& Associates)646-519-1956 Redburn Press P.O. Box 8452 Pittsburgh, Pa. 15220412-937-0906646-519-1956-- Mark Kohut (& Associates) 646-519-1956 Redburn Press P.O. Box 8452 Pittsburgh, Pa. 15220 412-937-0906 646-519-1956
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