Pynchon and Lovecraft

[Allen Ruch]

I would also *love* to know Pynchon's direct thoughts on Lovecraft! Especially given the Lovecraft/Thing pastiche in "Against the Day," where he riffs on HPL to eventually reach the most savage words written about New York City and 911 that I've ever read:

"Out of that night and day of unconditional wrath, folks would’ve expected to see any city, if it survived, all newly reborn, purified by flame, taken clear beyond greed, real-estate speculating, local politics—instead of which, here was this weeping widow, some one-woman grievance committee in black, who would go on and save up and lovingly record and mercilessly begrudge every goddamn single tear she ever had to cry, and over the years to come would make up for them all by developing into the meanest, cruelest bitch of a city, even among cities not notable for their kindness.

To all appearance resolute, adventurous, manly, the city would not shake that terrible all-night rape, when “he” was forced to submit, surrendering, inadmissibly, blindly feminine, into the Hellfire embrace of “her” beloved. He spent the years afterward forgetting and fabulating and trying to get back some self-respect. But inwardly, deep inside, “he” remained the catamite of Hell, the punk at the disposal of all the denizens thereof, the bitch in men’s clothing."

There's also some vaguely Lovecraftian elements in BE, weird angles, sinister presences lurking deep in physics, etc. Nothing as overt as the "Cthulhu meets Mountains of Madness" monster in the ice discovered in AtD, but still....

Anyway, if anyone wants a copy of Jeffrey Meikle's paper, "Other Frequencies: The Parallel Worlds of Thomas Pynchon and HP Lovecraft," just write me off-list. It's available on Jstor, of course, but y'know...

—Quail




On 2/7/22, 12:31 PM, "Pynchon-l on behalf of Mark Thibodeau" <pynchon-l-bounces at waste.org on behalf of jerkyleboeuf at gmail.com> wrote:

    Seconded! He's written some of the greatest weird short stories ever,
    and I love his work on a number of levels.

    Speaking of which, is anyone here particularly well-informed re: the
    topic of what Pynchon thought of Lovecraft, if anything? I seem to
    recall some mentions here years ago.

    Cheers!
    yer old pal Jerky

    On Sat, Feb 5, 2022 at 6:46 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
    >
    > "There's no need to inundate the world with books and language. It's just
    > too full already. There's so much rubbish hiding in the world. But as long
    > as I think I can do something inventive and insightful, then I'll keep
    > doing it." Happy 90th birthday to the great Robert Coover.
    > --
    > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
    --
    Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l