TP - Family politics

[matthew cissell]

    It has been speculated (sorry, I can't remember where right now)
that the line in CL49 about Oedipa being "young republican" might be
autobiographical to some extent. I've also heard it speculated that
Pynchon's father 'almost certainly' was republican since the GOP
controlled Nassau Co back then. ("The Suburb Reader" by Becky
Nicolaides and ANdrew Weise offers some insight; also "Machine
Politics Suburban Style", more specifically about Nassau County.) But
I had never come across anything firm, until today.

   Poking around I came across some hits and one of them linked Nixon
papers in which Thomas R. Pynchon senior appears. Seems that in 1960
Tricky D had to pass through Nassau where on Sept 28th he met sith
some local GOP rank and file and TRP sr is listed as "Republican
Leader Town of Oyster Bay".

   Of course thanks to all the hard working Pynchon scholars we know
that TP jr was well out of the house and on his way from NY to the
west coast at about this time - getting hip to jazz, opera, and so
much more.

ciao
mc otis
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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l