List of biographical articles on Pynchon

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

I share your doubts about the denial of the Playboy Japan interview.

When Siegel seems to suggest in the movie of the Dubini brothers that 
Pynchon took part in MK Ultra on the agency's side, this appears like 
character assassination to me. The idea that "GR was the 'wish to 
confess,' or something [karmic adjustment?]" makes not really sense in 
the given context. In this book there is a predecessor of Ultra, but the 
truth serum with which Slothrop gets treated is not Acid. Despite the 
partly psychedelic way the book is written and despite the fact that an 
Ultra like project appears in CoL49, there is simply no hint for 
Siegel's thesis, which seems not to have been built on the basis of 
reading, let alone rereading, anyway. If Pynchon was confessing anything 
by GR in a coded way, it would be his Boeing involvement at Bomarc 
Service News and his thinking inside the deadly patterns of the Cold 
War. The Rocket Gnosticism of Raketenstadt ...

Concerning Lineland, I can only say that the digital data of the text 
circulated offlist among P-listers during the late 1990s. Unfortunately 
I don't have the data themselves anymore yet only a printout. But 
perhaps somebody out there can pass the data on to you. It's definitely 
a funny read!


On 28.09.2014 01:29, Bob Mccart wrote:
> Muchas gracias, Kai.
>
> Do you happen to know if the booklet Lineland is available as text or 
> .pdf online? I haven't been able to track it down, and don't have a 
> good shipping address right now.
>
> The video 'documentary' on Pynchon featured a pretty crazy looking 
> Siegal, explaining the idea that GR was the 'wish to confess,' or 
> something, of Pynchon's involvement in spreading LSD to the young.
>
> That's interesting that Pynchon's wife denied the playboy interview. 
> But I mean despite all the jokes Playboy is not exactly a rag, and I 
> figure they could risk some big money if they print a completely 
> fabricated interview with a public figure--even if it was in Japan.
>
>
>
> On Sat, Sep 27, 2014 at 4:30 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen 
> <lorentzen at hotmail.de <mailto:lorentzen at hotmail.de>> wrote:
>
>
>     You should also have a look a the following two articles ---
>
>     Andrew Gordon: Smoking Dope with Thomas Pynchon: A Sixties Memoir
>     (in: Green/Greiner/McCaffery, eds., The Vineland Papers, pp. 167-178).
>
>     John M. Krafft: Biographical Note
>     (in: Daalsgaard/Herman/McHale, eds., The Cambridge Companion to
>     Thomas Pynchon, pp. 9-16).
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------
>     The first biographical article on Pynchon was written by Mathew
>     Winston:
>     The Quest for Pynchon (in: Twentieth Century Literature, 21, 1975,
>     pp. 278-287).
>
>     Finally, regarding Siegel: His booklet Lineland, in which the
>     early P-list got - to quote Paul Mackin - "played like a violin",
>     contains a lot of additional information. Thing just is that you
>     never know whether the things Siegel reports are true, because he
>     had personal issues with Pynchon.
>
>
>     On 27.09.2014 03:00, Bob Mccart wrote:
>
>         What are the essentials? I want to know what I'm missing.
>
>         I have the Jules Siegal playboy article.
>         I have one short Siegal email interview.
>         I have the Pynchon playboy Japan interview, translated.
>         I have the picture of Pynchon, bearded, in a light colored
>         suit, at a
>         wedding (Siegal's?)
>
>         Anything else?
>         Thanks!
>         -
>         Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>
>
>
>

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