English Majors

[Dipanjan Maitra]

To add to your list- BA, MA, M Phil in English Literature. Phew! I'm from
Kolkata, India where unfortunately Pynchon is rarely discussed, rarely
taught. I have been working primarily on James Joyce as part of my research
work although it was not via the 'Joyce industry' that I encountered
Pynchon. Saw 'A Journey into the Mind of P' and was thrilled. Found GR at
the American Library, Kolkata. Read it, loved it and thankfully managed to
get hold of the other texts. That was in 2006. Things haven't changed much,
it is still difficult to find a faculty member who is ready to supervise
work on Pynchon!

On Mon, Oct 1, 2012 at 5:40 PM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net> wrote:

> On 9/30/2012 1:32 PM, Monte Davis wrote:
>
>> Expanding an earlier reply: BS chemistry, BA comp. lit. Science writer,
>> then
>> business writer mostly for high-tech companies. In the interstices, 5
>> years
>> of teaching English at a prep school and PR writing as an adjunct at
>> college.
>>
>> Being nearly as old as dirt and/or Paul Mackin, I learned of Pynchon
>> through
>> dipping into my father's Bantam paperback of V. in '64 or '65, but didn't
>> read it then (must have missed the weird kink of Mondaugen's story, which
>> would surely have hooked me). A college friend pressed CoL49 on me in '66
>> or
>> '67, and I loved it. Don't remember how my brother and I heard the
>> pre-buzz
>> about GR from a cabin in the Maine woods, but we had it ASAP and I've
>> never
>> recovered. I've had only a handful of TRP-knowledgeable acquaintances
>> outside of lit. professors and the p-list.
>>
>
> Bet you weren't  born during the Cooledge administration.
>
> :-)
>
>
>>   From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.**org<owner-pynchon-l at waste.org>]
>> On Behalf
>> Of Matthew Cissell
>> Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2012 10:04 AM
>> To: Brian Kempf; pynchon-l at waste.org
>> Subject: Re: English Majors
>>
>> B,
>>
>> Your post has elicited responses from a number of  P-listers, some of whom
>> don't post very regularly. Whatsmore it has got some to offer more
>> information than their major - the bio bits are interesting. You see I
>> share
>> this curiousity about the Pynchon reading public. My own intention is to
>> soon post a survey here and get some real data for my own research. (It
>> would be interesting to know when and at what age people read PYnchon, but
>> also occupation, and another of number of things. Not just to create some
>> demographic chart but rather to unveil the relations between social
>> practices and background.) Here's my own bit: I graduated (in absentia - I
>> was studying abroad) with a BA in English  from Southern Illinois
>> University
>> in 1997. Additional coursework towards minors in Philosophy and science
>> (genetics); Mark, I'm a bit Manque as well. Took time out and worked for a
>> spell at Washington UNiversity as a lab drone helping map the human
>> genome.
>> In 2000 I came to Spain and started teaching English as a 2nd language; I
>> decided to go back to school to save my sanity (how ironic). In the
>> coursework I came across a book that I had seen years before on a friend's
>> shelf (I had even picked up the book and thought about borrowing it - how
>> different things might be now), The CoL49. My academic focus then swithced
>> to Pynchon.
>>
>> Oddly enough, in none of my previous course work had I come across
>> Pynchon.
>> I even did a 400 level course on "Postmodernism" and he was not included,
>> but then the professor made it clear that she didn't want the same old
>> male
>> hegemony imposed on the syllabus. Moreover, I have also met people with
>> literature degrees that had no idea of Pynchon, as others here have
>> mentioned. And so?
>>
>> Well it's one thing to have read an author that no one else knows, even an
>> "important" writer, but quite another for that same author to be used in
>> mass media cultural prducts. Of course, I'm thinking of TP's participation
>> in the Simpsons but also a piece from The
>> Onion. http://www.theonion.com/**articles/man-reading-pynchon-**
>> on-bus-takes-pai<http://www.theonion.com/articles/man-reading-pynchon-on-bus-takes-pai>
>> ns-to-make-cov,3192/    Try to imagine this piece with any other name from
>> the Ladbrokes Nobel betting list. My point is that Pynchon has a very
>> special place in the field of cultural production and research on his
>> reading public may reveal some interesting things e.g that his readers are
>> NOT limited to the halls of academia and that TP is NOT a writer's
>> wrt'iter.
>>
>> All the best,
>>
>> Matt Cissell
>>
>> ps congrats on the switch from the sad science, may it be a happy one.
>>   ______________________________**__
>> From: Brian Kempf <btkempf at gmail.com>
>> To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>> Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2012 7:09 PM
>> Subject: English Majors
>>
>> I'm curious about how many P-listers here have degrees in English,
>> Literature, or something similar. I just transferred from a BS in
>> Economics
>> to a BA in English at my school.
>> I've yet to meet anyone who reads (or knows) Pynchon, so I'm curious as to
>> what those who do studied or what fields they work in.
>> Thoughts?
>>
>> B
>>
>>
>>
>
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