Unauthorized Interview With _______
The following interview is comprised of questions and answers taken from various email exchanges with the late ________.1
I just got my first Pynchon book, 'Vineland'. It was the only one they had at the store.
Vineland actually may be my favorite Pynchon book. "The Crying of Lot 49" and "Gravity's Rainbow" are both probably better respected (the latter's kind of a Bible of the post-mod fiction world) but I think Vineland's really good. Very funny. The tone may be off-putting. I don't know.
[one dead, unstuffed Thomas Pynchon book, later]
I also got a Nabokov book called 'Strong Opinions' It looked good.
I haven't read that Nabokov book. I like 'Pnin' and would recommend, other than 'Lolita', 'Pale Fire' which is very funny and dark and your type of book. I won't spoil it by revealing the premise, but let's just say the premise is good.
Do you have any opinion about China's panda policy? And I think if the guys at 'The Onion' had any balls, they would just stop trying to write articles and just have the headlines with random text filling out the rest of the layout. I would pay them to do that. I read a few pages of Vineland. Pynchon is definitely clever and funny, but he really needs to stop being so mean to middle Americans. I mean, he should pick on someone his own size. I think maybe he just needs a time-out. Oh, and lastly, is there another Barthelme book I should know about?
No, no opinion about that. But 'the Onion' guys write the headlines first, then the articles, I read recently. So that ties in with your theory. And I agree with you about Pynchon — his tone — one of the reasons I don't love him. There's a Barthelme book called "Paradise" which is out of print, but can be ordered through Amazon. You might like it.
I was wondering if you had any suggestions for my Eliot page?
You should also encourage people to read Eliot's literary criticism (as you should yourself.) He's one of the most important critics of the century and his essays are great.
Remember, stalking is the sincerest form of flattery.
1 Yes, well, all good things come to an end, sometimes.
From: _________
To: Bacon
Date: Saturday, August 10, 2002 13:07 pm
Subject: Busted
poems/_______/email-_______.html
I'd like to have this removed, my friend, even though stalking is the.... etc
Your friend,
_______
(using [his brother's] email)
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