English Majors

[Brian Kempf]

I really appreciate everyone's responses here. It's incredible to see how folks from all walks of life share an interest in such an author of such depth and breadth skirting the periphery of the mainstream. It definitely takes a different "type" of person to enjoy TRP though I'm surprised at how few of those who responded are actually employed in academia. I'm very glad that I found the P-list.

I read CoL49 on the suggestion of a poster on a discussion board who noticed that I had just finished Joe Heller's Catch-22 (a favorite of mine that I plan to re-read critically soon) as well as Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five. This was during the summer between my junior and senior years of high school, mind you. I struggled greatly through CoL49 because I was immature as a reader. However, I was captivated by the concept as paranoia as TRP described it, and the concept of an over-arching conspiracy theory in the novel with no real payoff was also particularly enjoyable for me. I never really "let go" of Pynchon, and this year read V.. My struggle to understand this as well is what brought me to the P-list. 

 Now that I've finished both V. and Col49, I'm re-reading CoL49 to pick up what I missed, this time with a companion reader in hand. After that, I'm tackling Gravity's Rainbow, perhaps within the next few months or so. My reading list is growing at a rate faster than I will ever keep up with, but doesn't this happen to everyone? I really would like to tackle Ulysses and Infinite Jest, having read material by both Joyce and DFW. However, being a double-majoring freshman in college, I probably will read those books in piecemeal. I also just finished Foster's How to Read Literature like a Professor, which I saw suggested here. It really does help make sense of reading, since I believe that I hadn't been doing it the right way.

B

P.S. Matt- thanks for the congrats. I'll probably end up adding history or polsci as well, but Econ/business is certainly no place for folks like me who cannot do math to save their life.


On Sep 30, 2012, at 10:03 AM, Matthew Cissell <macissell at yahoo.es> wrote:

> 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

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