Pyn's Privacy

[Rev'd Seventy-Six]

The bar where I work, patrons, regs and freshfaces alike all peep the
same query when given the author's name. He's Unknown, except for the
person who invariably says "I know Pynchon from the Simpsons." The
author's (artist's) position is a difficult. Those I respect the most
don't get in the way of their own work, practicing a very special kind
of humility / hermitage-- "Silence, cunning,  exile and so on" being
the mantra  --and they tend to foster great works as a result. His
anonymity is a discipline, the muted post horn its signal. A
particularly loaded signal in a country where, as mighty misanthropes
bitter Bierce and WSB both lamented, no-one is allowed to mind their
own business. It manifests in weird ways.  This wending thread is the
first time I have heard ever grumblings of class envy toward an
extremely niche, cult author. He lives the life of Riley if you're the
shy type, but he ain't puttin' on the Ritz. Ain't no high hat in his
attitude, so I don't savvy the seeming resentment...

On 5/10/13, Ben Canard <bencanard2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Sparing his family? I can't imagine how annoying it must be to be Jackson
> Pynchon, at least at times. I guess he has advantages that most don't have
> access to. But just think how many times he must have been asked about his
> father, from those who were in college with him, perhaps even professors,
> and just numerous other random folks who find out who he is. Someone I know
> from another state found out where his band had a gig in NY a few years
> ago. It was close enough to where I live, and he bugged me for weeks to go
> and see if I could run in to dear old dad. I declined, but how many didn't.
> And how many accost him with questions just because dad isn't around.
>
>
> On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 4:52 AM, Matthew Cissell <macissell at yahoo.es>
> wrote:
>
>> "This is America", god I wish you hadn't said that. I associate it with
>> contorted faces screaming"USA, USA". I don't even know what you're trying
>> to say with that.
>>
>>  By the way I have a problem with people telling me "Get used to it" I
>> put
>> that imperative up there with 'That's just the way it is', well like
>> Hornsby sang, don't ya believe it. I don't.
>>
>> Did I say he was worried about his family? Check my post, it's not in
>> there. Embarrassing Simpson's episode? What was so embarrassing? And for
>> whom?
>>
>> By the way, he asks for no special treatement that I am aware of, he
>> simply defends his privacy. And what does his standard of living have to
>> do
>> with it? Because he is a successful writer he should join in the
>> media-publicity-marketing machine? Right.
>>
>> Personally I admire the guy for handling it the way he has. Apparently
>> you
>> don't agree. Fine by me.
>>
>> Good luck in America.
>>
>> ciao
>> mc otis
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: "bandwraith at aol.com" <bandwraith at aol.com>
>> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>> Sent: Friday, May 10, 2013 4:08 AM
>> Subject: Re: Pyn's Privacy
>>
>>
>>
>> Please. This is America. Get used to it. If the man is worried about his
>> family, let him return to engineering or technical writing. I'm sure he'd
>> do fine, and perhaps we'd all be spared more embarrassing Simpson's
>> episodes. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad for his art, but he deserves no
>> special treatment. He lives better than most of us.
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Rev'd Seventy-Six <revd.76 at gmail.com>
>> To: malignd <malignd at aol.com>; pynchon-l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>> Sent: Thu, May 9, 2013 9:35 pm
>> Subject: Re: Pyn's Privacy
>>
>>
>> Again, I think it's as much about sparing his family as it is about
>> sparing himself the press. Yes, he's created this relatively novel
>> situation. He didn't create a society based on commodifying celebrity,
>> but he has to live in it if he's to be an American author. It's what
>> he wants to be in the world he wants to live in, yet we as a culture
>> and homo sap in general are notoriously nosy, and American fandom in
>> specific is the pits when it comes to digging through people's trash
>> and brandishing overweened entitlement all the while. He hasn't posted
>> barbed wire but he's put up rather a lot of signage indicating Keep
>> Out. His self-image may have informed this drift into hermitude but
>> why question his position? Am reminded of how creeped-out I felt
>> watching The Life of P.: here was a black market in a living man's
>> correspondence. Some call it study, but it seems to have more to do
>> with 'solving' an artist rather than comprehending his works--
>> particularly those works formulating a Theory of Disappearence. --
>> htt
>>
>


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