Pynchon, books and readers

Tue Jun 19 09:28:32 CDT 2012

What novel is *not* rebarbative?  Ask that guy to name one.  Having said
that, I find the sex in Rainbow intensely boring and rebarbative.  Surely
you would agree that complexity drives away popular demand?  I remember one
bit, one of the last things I read of it a few months ago, maybe last
month, it was when Slothrop goes to a party in a zootsuit and a tank comes
through the wall and Slothrop opens the top.  There's a bit in there that
as far as I could tell meant nothing (maybe it was vital), it was all one
sentence, lasted a page, and was designed to be the most complex sentence
in all of literature, one thing connected to another connected to another,
etc.  I loved it.  Not that I retained any of it.

What's you're ongoing work?  Does Rainbow deal at all with future-gizmos?
 Seems like even sci-fi that takes place in the past has to deal to some
extent with gizmos of the future.

On Tue, Jun 19, 2012 at 9:01 AM, Matthew Cissell <macissell at yahoo.es> wrote:

> Hey P-listers
>
> Forgive me if this has come up before. Are many of you familiar with "The
> History of Science Fiction" by Adam Roberts? Its one of the books I'm
> chipping away at. In chapter 13, Prose Science Fiction 1970's - 1990's, he
> gets around to TP. First, he writes that GR, "has a plausible claim to be
> the greatest SF novel of the 1970's." Granted, Roberts does have a very
> wide definition of SF, but how many of you would call it SF?
>
> Second, and this is where he really got my attention, he writes of GR that
> "it is too long, too complex, rebarbative and obscene ever to have enjoyed
> popular success (that it is still in print today is almost cetainly because
> universities require their students to buy it)."
>
> The last bit is so speculative it hurts. Does he have any numbers about
> book sales or university courses? This is the kind of unfounded claim that
> I address in my ongoing work. I think one would find that CoL49 is more
> often included in sylabi at universities.
>
> Mark, your mail is part of the angle missing from my field of vision. When
> will you provide a downloadable version of your knowledge and experience
> related to publishing?
>
> ciao
> mc otis
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
> To: Prashant Kumar <p.kumar at physics.usyd.edu.au>
> Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2012 9:32 PM
> Subject: Re: Pynchon eBook Trailer
>
>
> In filling in all around Pynchon, this would be an interesting exercise,
> getting and using ALL the facts and educated guesses
> one could get........I kinda wish I had time.........
>
> But, short answers to provide some framework.....Writers get
> "advances"--an upfront loan paid back by royalty deductions later---
> upon which to live while they write their books. TRP had to get these, and
> especially of some liveable-on size after Crying of Lot 49..
> We know by hearsay that he wrote the story that became Lot 49 because he
> 'needed' money, so royalties from V. (and any initial advance
> for GR--if there was one) might have entropied his worklife. (is this a
> psychological 'objective correlative" for his early concern with entropy?
> One might also remember how he was said to be always running in Positively
> Fourth Street...'fearing time was running out"? )
>
> Anyway, he broke through into, perhaps, enough sales to live on when Lot
> 49 was published in paperback. He went wide. Lot 49 was
> many readers' intro into his work and soon enough the Academy was
> assigning it so sales continued and grew.
>
> Then GR was a legitimate NYTimes bestseller.....(minimum 50,00 sold, very
> minimum....surely over 100, 000, 200,000 then....and
> earlier ones picked up again.....)
>
> And he got grants......a macArthur  when, 80s sometime)...a Guggenheim
> earlier?........
>
> Bigger advances for later works, I'm sure...(aspect of book accounting not
> much known: an author can sometimes NOT sell enoough copies
> to earn the royalties that pay back the amount they were advanced YET.....
>
> the publishing company still can make nice money on the sales after
> deducting losses for unclaimed advances.....(work it out sometime w
> made-up amounts....)
>
> And, with Pynchon, unlike any flash in pan, literary or purely commercialm
> he has always been in print so is always earn ing some royalties...
>
> i would essay this too-quick guess.....Today, 2012.....TRP sells maybe
> 5,000 paperback copies of all his books except GR and Lot 49....
> (and, yes, that is a reductive generlaized number and I'll bet some
> plisters might want to speculate on the varying ongoing sales of the
> various novels)
> I'd say 10,000 GR a year....and over 20,000 Lot 49 a year........
>
> so, do some math....
>
> And flame me for hasty stupidities......
>
> From: Prashant Kumar <p.kumar at physics.usyd.edu.au>
> To: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
> Cc: Tyler Wilson <tbsqrd at hotmail.com>; P-list <pynchon-l at waste.org>; "
> against.the.dave at gmail.com" <against.the.dave at gmail.com>
> Sent: Friday, June 15, 2012 10:36 PM
> Subject: Re: Pynchon eBook Trailer
>
>
> Stupid follow up question (it was me who asked the original): how does
> that translate into average yearly income?
>
>
> 'cos if we imagine (entirely for argument) that TRP gets 15% on books at
> $30 ea. and 100,000 (I have no idea whether this is a realistic figure)
> sales for the lifetime of a book, say 20 years, then that's a grad
> student's stipend of $22,500 p.a.
>
> On 16 June 2012 04:30, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> I don't know 'nothin, Tyler, but if I have time i may try to get some
> answers...
> >
> >but your post remeinded me that I wanted to answer the post of whoever
> asked
> >what a writer like Pynchon earns.........
> >
> >And the answer for most writers' printed books is 8 to 15% royaltes--from
> list price---per sale.
> >A writer loses no royalties when one buys new from amazon, and
> such.....(some exception to that
> >if the publisher has terms regarding lower roylaties if they have to sell
> at standard wholesale (and higher--what are called 'special sales") prices.)
> >
> >There are often bonueses for hitting bestsller lists---almost always the
> NYT...
> >
> >TRP surely had contracts at 15% after GR....earlier ones could have been
> lower--10--12.5%
> >but have surely been renegotiated since........
> >
> >Writers typically get 50% of all
> subrights deals.........paperback license, movie rights, Czech editions,
> etc.)
> >
> >One aspect of p's ebook deal that some in the industry wonder about is
> Why/How did penguin get all of them?
> >Deals?...why din't they--harper, no slouches---fight to keep the ones
> they 'own"?
> >
> >Ms. Jackson and Thomas obviously wanted Penguin for all..........
> >
> >
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: Tyler Wilson <tbsqrd at hotmail.com>
> >To: P-list <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> >Cc: against.the.dave at gmail.com
> >Sent: Friday, June 15, 2012 12:18 PM
> >Subject: RE: Pynchon eBook Trailer
> >
> >
> >
> >Any of you folks know anything about--or seen before--the artwork in P's
> eBook trailer representing Slow Learner?: the bird, the train, the
> pyramid... I have never seen those graphics, and it seems I would have by
> now, my not-quite-healthy interest long in the running. I've a distant
> recollection of reading that he did not at all care for the cover art of the
> Little Brown first edition. (Can anyone confirm this?) So perhaps these
> graphics were created for the trailer instead?
> >Can anyone school me?
> >With all my gratitude,--T
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >> From: against.the.dave at gmail.com
> >> Date: Wed, 3  Jun 012  2::5::8  -500<
> >> Subject: Re: Pynchon eBook Trailer
> >> To: scuffling at gmail.com
> >> CC: pynchon-l at waste.org
> >>
> >> On Wed, Jun 3,, 012  at ::7  AM, Henry M <scuffling at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> >
> http://greg.org/archive/012//6//2//thomas_pynchons_e-book_trailer.html
> >> > greg.org: the making of: Thomas Pynchon's e-Book Trailer
> >> > By greg
> >> > Thomas Pynchon's e-Book Trailer. Four words that I, for one, ever
> expected
> >> > to type in this sequence, but here we are. After Long Resistance,
> >> > Pynchon Allows Novels to Be Sold as E-Books [nyt] Thomas Pynchon on
> >> > Kindle someday,
> >> > but not yet ..
> >>
> >> Thomas Pynchon - The Complete Collection - eBooks
> >>
> >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urNQSSEEBGA
> >
>
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