Possible Interpretation of the title Vineland

[Mark Kohut]

Answers: first sentence, question" No, I knew that there was a Vineland, CA
back when we talked about it here on the plist.Maybe a Group Read.

Second sentence: caught me out..."some is a typo" I should have caught
....it should have read "come' into existence.....And, also I could have
said better what I wanted to say (everyone can use an editor):  which was;
 Pynchon had to know---I project-- there was no town there since that was
easily known.
Therefore he had no intention of it being thought of as Zoyd's origins.
Therefore I aver, it is part of his vision, as presented in Vineland---his
vision of family, community,
America's dream, that there might be one real Vineland, the original hope
of the VIkings, I might say, about the new found land.

And Talk about the kind of confusion I fell into above:  you say you do not
pretend to read Pynchon's mind about where the Title might have emerged yet
you DO try to read his
mind about "P's larger novelization of America history."

We are doing the same thing I suggest.

On Mon, Feb 2, 2026 at 9:41 PM J Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:

> First you respond to verifiable and easily found facts to insist without
> evidence that” There is a Vineland Ca." Did you write that  first , and
> then look it up? Is there any kind of admission of oops, here?
>
> Then( I assume after actually looking it up) you say its absence,  the
> fact that there is no town of Vineland,  proves  "that Pynchon knows there
> is no town there……and that is part of the title’s meaning…one needs to some
> into existence in his vision.."  What , in normal syntax, is meant by, “and
> that is part of the title’s meaning…one needs to some into existence in his
> vision..”  Huh?
>
> One more issue . Who said "there is no town of Vineland CA so Pynchon
> could not be alluding to it in his title” . I simply said there is no town,
> and that the school district is in Kern County so highly unlikely to refer
> to Zoyds origins. I do not claim to read Pynchon’s mind about where the
> Title emerged and my thoughts are reasonably modest on that question,
> looking more at how the  name might be being used in P’s larger
> novelization of American history.
>
>
>
> > On Feb 2, 2026, at 6:42 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > That there is no "town" that is Vineland, Ca.....so Pynchon could not be
> > alluding to it in his title
> > proves the opposite to me....that Pynchon KNOWS there is no "town" there
> > and that is part of
> > the title's meaning.......one needs to some into existence in his
> vision..
> >
> > That hopefulness was also mentioned by Rushdie, who believed the book
> > suggested community, individuality, and family as counterweights to the
> > repressive Nixon–Reagan era,
>
>
>
>