Pyn's Privacy

[Matthew Cissell]

Your first sentence requires no comment. However, your second sentence makes me think you have mistaken me. I certainly don't believe that paparats would hound him. But that's not the problem. You see its about the creeping commodification of your very being. A picture shoot here turns into book signings later (I am aware that publishers aren't so big on those anymore but back some years things were different) and then public readings... 

TP has no more created this situation than the photographers who went to take a shot of him in Mexico. That is not to say that the positions he has taken have not lead to this situation. He has chosen to stay out of sight and the world around him (media and academia) have been happy to see the myth grow. Tp is probably aware that all this resonates with parts of his readership and that 'playing to the crowd' is a successful strategy.

By the way other authors have tried to avoid the press and the press have gone after them, at least briefly, anyhow: DeLillo (& his "I don't want to talk about it card", Salinger (though later left alone), and Rushdie being called a playboy or something he took exception to.

If you think he's phobic (what phobia would that be?), that doesn't strike me as tasteless. Perhaps it is a bit tasteless to write "notably homely", I mean the adjective I might have accepted but notably? So the guy aint Fabio but check out that sailor photo of TP, beats the hell out of Bukowski for looks.

Although I do recognise that as a young man he was probably self-conscious about his teeth, making it about his looks alone strikes me as reductive. 

ciao
mc

________________________________
From: "malignd at aol.com" <malignd at aol.com>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org 
Sent: Thursday, May 9, 2013 11:40 PM
Subject: Re: Pyn's Privacy



Well, Pynchon isn't Hank Williams.  This cockeyed notion that, were he not private to the extent that he seems to many ti be reclusive, that he'd be hounded by paparazzi, is absurd.  He's created this situation.  Is there any major writer who was inordinately denied his privacy?  Roth, Gaddis, Bellow, Delillo, Heller, etc. -- all dealt with the press occasionally, but didn't suffer any particular loss of privacy. So yes, I think he's phobic.  I mentioned this once before and was taken to task for tastelessness, but the man is notably homely.  He may be sensitive about his looks and that's what's afoot.



-----Original Message-----
From: Matthew Cissell <macissell at yahoo.es>
To: Rev'd Seventy-Six <revd.76 at gmail.com>; pynchon-l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Thu, May 9, 2013 5:49 am
Subject: Pyn's Privacy


Yeh, I saw the link - it's not for me. Deleted. Do I need the photo? no. I've made the argumetn before, he is no recluse or introverted weirdo. And I 
don't think it's a gimmik either. (It is almost funny how the real story of the 
Time photographers got turned into him "jumping out a window and running off 
into the desert", almost.) Siegel (I think) claimed TP was upset by M. Monroe's death, and why not; it 
seems plausible to me. But there were other examples of people being consumed by 
their stardom. Consider the Hank Williams Sr. quote: "They're slicing me up and 
selling me like bologna." The mid 20th century saw the creation of The Big Fame 
Machine, unknown human goes in and a package comes out; when it is rung dry you 
find another. I think TP saw this behemouth growing and decided he didn't want 
to play along. By the time Kerouac drank himself to death, I bet TP was pretty 
happy that he had avoided all that publicity/ fame BS. Of course it is interesting to see how he is trying to navigate this situation 
anew and play the game by his rules, not those of the Big Media fame machine. 
Can he work the machine without getting worked over? We'll see in the September 
episode of Swift Tom and the Media Monster Machine. ciao
mc ________________________________
From: Rev'd Seventy-Six <revd.76 at gmail.com>
To: Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com>; "pynchon-l at waste.org" 
<pynchon-l at waste.org> 
Sent: Thursday, May 9, 2013 2:04 AM
Subject: Re: Every Known Picture of Thomas Pynchon The man worked hard for his privacy. What's with this sick cult of
personality capitalism encourages, where fans and/or glory hounds
insist on imposing their existence on a man who desires no
introduction? I like his books. I know him from his books. I think
that's where the fence is positioned. If he wanted any old busybody to
cross it he'd be eating in Ralph's Big Boy at two thirty every
afternoon. Media... pffft. On 5/8/13, Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.bookofjoe.com/2009/08/every-known-picture-of-thomas-pynchon.html >
> The Truth about Thomas Pynchon
>
> http://www.verifiedfacts.org/i/pynchon/NDEwNjYw > -- http://posthistoricpress.blogspot.com/