So the production team of The Simpsons knows what Thomas Pynchon looks like now?

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Thomas Pynchon was on the Simpsons last night (local times may vary). I have to admit I was a little freaked out, and then Bloke and I got into a big conversation about authors and who would cause you to lose your cool if you met them and whether or not Pynchon actually turned up to the studio or if he sent in a tape or what he would have done, and I said that I thought he could go wherever he wanted, because it's not like people really do follow him around trying to get snaps of him, do they? And anyway, how can you follow someone around if you don't know what he looks like? And surely, unless he wears a big paper bag on his head all the time, or else doesn't go out at all, people must see him on a day to day basis? And would you buy a magazine because it had a picture of him in it?

I don't have a single question here. I'm just kind of intrigued by the secret author/celebrity author thing, and the idea of no-one knowing your real identity.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Monday, 22 November 2004 16:39 (twenty-one years ago)

I have, perhaps, drunk too many lattes today. And not had enough fresh air.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Monday, 22 November 2004 16:41 (twenty-one years ago)

http://mymarkup.net/mt/images/pynchon_simpsons.jpg

― Fred (Fred), Monday, 22 November 2004 18:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I loved how ethnic he sounded.

― Dan I., Monday, 22 November 2004 19:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Didn't someone snap a photo of him for an article within the last year or two? I vaguely remember seeing the photo somewhere on the Intarweb, it was of him with his son (or was it daughter) on an NYC street, clearly taken in haste and with a zoom lens.

Well, I don't know for sure it was him because I don't know what he looks like, but the author claimed it was and the editors must have agreed.

― W i l l (common_person), Monday, 22 November 2004 20:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, this is the beauty of Thomas Pynchon (presumably not even his real name). That photo, which I have also seen, could have been anyone of roughly the right age. Although presumably someone tipped the photographer off.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Monday, 22 November 2004 22:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Pynchon conducted his interviews with David Hajdu (for his book,
Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina and Richard Farina) via fax...

― A.M. Correa (amcorrea), Tuesday, 23 November 2004 17:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I think his mystique is misplaced. I heard of Gravity's Rainbow before I knew he was a reclusive author (which was just after I read the first post of this thread).

The only time I've wanted to know more about an author is when they are:

1: Dead and a classic author (Hemmingway, Parker via the introductory notes)
2: A Blockbuster Seller (King, Cartland via cultural osmosis)
3: Looking sexy in their author picture (Tartt, Wolff via my eyes)

The only shocking thing I can think in terms of real identity is that Thomas is a lady or George W Bush and I still haven't read any of his/her/its work.

― Kevan (Kevan), Tuesday, 23 November 2004 21:35 (twenty-one years ago)

You really have a thing for ladies who double the final letter in their plain old English word last names, eh?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 01:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Gets me every time.

― Kevan (Kevan), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 07:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I think that's part of why I'm fascinated by Thomas Pynchon and his reclusiveness (reclusivity?). Basically, I don't care. I'm not convinced by his godlike status as an author and so I can't imagine what all the big fuss would be about. Would he really have people camping out on his doorstep like Anne Rice has? Or is it more that he doesn't want to have drippy college students following him around telling him that he inspired them to become writers, or that he opened their minds to new experiences, as I'm sure must happen to JD Salinger or William Burroughs?

Or maybe he really is just completely mad and his publishers have decided that if they can't send him out on book tours, they can at least work his madness for all its worth.

Also, on a side note, is the correct phrase "all it's worth" or "all its worth"? Sometimes I get confused.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 09:01 (twenty-one years ago)

When I was reading V on the tube once, this trampy dude came up to me on the escalator and said "Ahhh, yessh. Resclusshive Ameri-can auschhor", before walking off. I'm like 75% sure it was Pynchon.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 16:21 (twenty-one years ago)

as I'm sure must happen to JD Salinger or William Burroughs?

Salinger is also a recluse, though, and Burroughs is dead (and probably had no problem with, er, drippy college students, if they were male and dripped the right substances).

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 17:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Even as I typed the words, I knew that Salinger was not really the man I meant.

But you know what I mean.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 20:47 (twenty-one years ago)

four weeks pass...

http://www.isthistomorrow.com/archive/pynchon.html

― Pam, Thursday, 23 December 2004 15:02 (twenty years ago)

OK so I searched for JD Salinger to find out if he's still around and all of the websites say "Jerome David Salinger, 1919 - STILL ALIVE" - how great is that!?

― Pam, Thursday, 23 December 2004 15:07 (twenty years ago)

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