Subject: Re: Groupbath of groupthink: VN & Pyncheon
From: Rodney Welch <[email-masked]>
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2001 21:03:30 -0400

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
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
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