GalleyCat : Passion for Pynchon
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For an author who never does publicity and a book that won't have the massive marketing campaign as other lead titles, it goes without saying that Thomas Pynchon's AGAINST THE DAY is going to do well (really, really well) upon its release on November 21. I mean, just before a long weekend - that means a lot of diehards will be skipping out on turkey and football to devour the nearly 1100-page tome. So for those who aren't steeped in Pynchon-mania, what makes him so appealing to an ever-increasing cult of fans? The AP finds out more, talking with fans ranging from conceptual artists, web design consultants and 'independent scholars.
"Pynchon fans tend to take his work seriously I think because, beyond the intrinsically interesting subject matter and intriguing stories, his books are so rich and complex, touching on so many topics," says Pynchon fan Doug Millison, a writer, editor and Web design consultant based in El Cerrito, Calif. Pynchon is now 69, but time, and the Internet, have advanced in his favor. It's been nine years since his previous novel, MASON & DIXON, came out, and fans have fully digitized their passion, building an online community worthy of an author who as much as anyone brought a high-tech sensibility to literary fiction."
1 comment:
When "Galley Cat" comes to the new bookstores, maybe its popularity will generate customer interest in other books Pynchon.
I for one would like a good biography of the author. Already, the fact that he attended Nabakov lectures at Cornell with other budding writers (including Farina) has led to me reading other fiction titles that were brewing back then and back there.
Ever curious, I did an AddAll search for two famous Pynchon titles.
For the search entry "Title: Vineland .. Author: Pynchon ..", the results page brought up 735 title(s).
-- more than 57 of the 'hits' for this Pynchon novel were priced at or below $2.50 "plus handling and shipping."
For Gravity's Rainbow:
Our search for "Title: Gravity's Rainbow ..Author: Pynchon .." brought up 465 title(s).
-- but by the 57th 'hit' for Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow title, price had climbed to $7 to $8 "plus handling and shipping."
(Offers to sell include the 1973 large-format Viking/Compass edition, and the Bantam paperback and every issue of the title since these first printings.)
When we refine the AddAll search to find copies available in Canada, there pop up at least 7 booksellers offering Pynchon's 'GR' at from C $6 to C $16.
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