English Majors

[Keith Davis]

I'm reading Foster, too, after the discussion here. Fun and enlightening.
You'll have a blast with GR, and you have all the veteran readers here
 On Sep 30, 2012 4:49 PM, "Brian Kempf" <btkempf at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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