Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Return-Path: Received: from ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu ([128.111.125.82]) by mtapop2.verizon.net (InterMail vM.4.01.03.00 201-229-121) with ESMTP id <20010724010335.CLIS8004630.mtapop2.verizon.net@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu> for ; Mon, 23 Jul 2001 20:03:35 -0500 Received: from ucsbuxa (listserv.ucsb.edu [128.111.125.159]) by ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (8.9.3+Sun/8.8.5) with ESMTP id SAA16623 for ; Mon, 23 Jul 2001 18:03:31 -0700 (PDT) Received: from granger.mail.mindspring.net ([207.69.200.148]) by ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (8.9.3+Sun/8.8.5) with ESMTP id SAA16619 for ; Mon, 23 Jul 2001 18:03:30 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [165.247.182.39] (user-2ivfdh7.dialup.mindspring.com [165.247.182.39]) by granger.mail.mindspring.net (8.9.3/8.8.5) with ESMTP id VAA03854 for ; Mon, 23 Jul 2001 21:03:31 -0400 (EDT) User-Agent: Microsoft-Outlook-Express-Macintosh-Edition/5.02.2022 Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2001 21:03:30 -0400 Subject: Re: Groupbath of groupthink: VN & Pyncheon From: Rodney Welch To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum Message-ID: In-Reply-To: <005801c113a6$d4e59880$9561183f@oemcomputer> Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 Kris Majer writes: >> I remember reading / hearing somewhere once that Pynchon was not a writer, >> but a group of writers. Not much proof for that, but the thesis hasn't > been >> disproved either. Reading the body of Pynchon's work does not support the idea that he's a "group of writers" -- at least, not to me. The idea that the thesis "hasn't been disproved" -- well, you can't prove a negative. But I suspect insofar as theories of authorship go -- by which scholars prove there is one Twain, not twenty, one Austen, not thirty, one Nabokov, one Alfred Appel (Gore Vidal once half-seriously suggested the latter two were the same) -- Pynchon would pass. So far as I know, there is only one extremely private Manhattanite claiming to be Thomas Pynchon, who has a traceable history up to a point, as well as a wife, son, friends. A few years ago his letters to his agent were auctioned off. He also poked his head up a few years ago to interview an obscure band for Esquire. As for his relationship with VN, I vaguely recall a mid-1970s Esquire (?) profile in which Pynchon's former teacher said he couldn't get through "Gravity's Rainbow," giving up on it halfway through. Can anyone verify this? RW By the way, any information on the Nabokov - Pynchon >> nexus? So far I have found out that P was N's student and that Vera >> remembered him for randomly alternating between lowercas and uppercase >> letters. We also have the cryptic texts. But anything else? >> >> Regards, >> >> Kris >> >> >> >> -- >> >> Darmowy komunikator internetowy - zainstaluj >> OnetKomunikator [ http://ok.onet.pl ] >>