English Majors

[Matthew Cissell]

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-pains-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