b-but the time frame?!

[Christian Hänggi]

  Hey Mark,

I'm curious about Pynchon "reportedly played the ukulele." 

The only claim I know of is that of Jules Siegel: Pynchon “could carry  
a tune well and made up ribald parodies of popular songs, which I seem  
to remember—surely I am imagining this—were accompanied on a ukulele."

Do you have other sources?

As to the him playing the guitar:
  Boris Kachka writes that “Pynchon had doubts about his lyrical  
talents” and quotes Pynchon without indicating the source: “I have  
this guitar on which I occasionally kill time making up rock’n’roll  
lyrics.” And elsewhere: "But the goateed introvert came out for a beer  
once in a while, and noodled around on a guitar."
  See: http://www.vulture.com/2013/08/thomas-pynchon-bleeding-edge.html

  David Hajdu writes: “While he was known to have a few Red Cap ales  
at Johnny’s or pick up a guitar at a party and strum a standard such  
as Rodgers and Hart’s ‘I Wish I Were in Love Again,’ Pynchon, in  
contrast to Fariña, was clearly most comfortable in the smallest  
groups” (45).

Zitat von Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>:

> My supposition may have faded since I wrote this. This is from the pynchon
> wiki. The follow-ups at the wiki are good. Just a half-hidden lyre-playing,
> so to speak, artist analogy, which ropes him, Pynchon, in as artist
> inevitably. Had it BEEN a ukelele, then it would jump out at us as obvious.
> Therefore I maybe shouldn't have written about it now. Shows how we
> remember our own notions even when we now think they were not the best. As
> Nietzsche wrote of memories, I think(! the irony!!), they ride on pride not
> humility. Also notice at the wiki the pretty nice possibility that he wrote
> himself into GR in an Osbie Feel paragraph. Page 202
>
> *Cooper*
> In the spirit of Icelandic Spar doubling, is it possible that the
> description of 'young gent Cooper' is Pynchon writing himself into ATD?
> Pynchon is reportedly shy and one of the supposed reasons given for why he
> never wanted his picture taken was that his upper teeth protruded and he
> did not like his portrait. Cooper sits astride a black and gold V-twin (!),
> produces a "Cornell" model Acme guitar, 'which now and then found strange
> notes added into the guitar chords, as though Cooper had hit between the
> wrong frets, only somehow it sounded right,' a pretty good analogy of
> Pynchon's bizarre but powerful prose style. Cf. Pynchon and his music
> connections and the trope (from Homer on) of musicians as the archetypal
> artists. Pynchon reportedly played the ukulele, so perhaps he also plays
> guitar. Perhaps this Cooper is an amalgam of himself and his great deceased
> school friend, Richard Farina?
>
> On Sat, Sep 29, 2018 at 11:57 PM peterthooper at juno.com <
> peterthooper at juno.com> wrote:
>
>> quoth Mark Kohut:
>>
>> I like the P cameo possibility. I think there is one in ATD.
>>
>> Who? Where?
>>
>> ____________________________________________________________
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>
> --Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l