An edited extracted from Thomas Pynchon's introduction to the new Plume (Penguin US) edition of George Orwell's 1984.
Pynchon has always stashed his most acute cultural analysis in his literary criticism of lesser writers. I'm going to finish Mason & Dixon, though , before I reread 1984. Excellent find Jim, touching on all the hot nodes of recent treespeak.
It's so clearly written and uncomplicated that it's hard to believe it's by Pynchon -- if you know what I mean....
Yes, and what is up with Pynchon, I mean who the hell is he, or she, or what? Maybe Pynchon is Deep Throat?
catch the documentary and you may still never know
According to our friends at the memoryhole, only one of Pynchon's Boeing pieces is circulating in public: Togetherness. The rest are in the Boeing archives. Here's the Boeing historian's response to an email from the memoryhole: Here is all we know on Pynchon.
Thomas Pynchon did write articles for a monthly Boeing field service publication that ran during the 50s and 60s. Unfortunately there is no documentation or by-lines, so it is very difficult to determine which articles were written by Pynchon.
Recently we allowed a literary researcher to aquire copies of the publications in an effort to determine which articles are Pynchon's. The researcher was going to write a book - so you might want to keep watch for it. Interesting, although after looking through Togetherness I'm not sure there is too much of value here beyond the obvious curiosity this represents. Or maybe I'm just not enough of a Pynchon scholar. (Yes, I understand the gravities rainbow - missile tech connection, but still...)
War is Peace.
Freedom is Slavery.
Ignorance is Strength.
Fear is Security.
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- jim 5-05-2003 7:38 pm
Pynchon has always stashed his most acute cultural analysis in his literary criticism of lesser writers. I'm going to finish Mason & Dixon, though , before I reread 1984. Excellent find Jim, touching on all the hot nodes of recent treespeak.
- frank 5-05-2003 9:31 pm
It's so clearly written and uncomplicated that it's hard to believe it's by Pynchon -- if you know what I mean....
- bruno 5-06-2003 8:28 am
Yes, and what is up with Pynchon, I mean who the hell is he, or she, or what? Maybe Pynchon is Deep Throat?
- jimlouis 5-06-2003 3:12 pm
catch the documentary and you may still never know
- linda 5-06-2003 5:51 pm
According to our friends at the memoryhole, only one of Pynchon's Boeing pieces is circulating in public: Togetherness. The rest are in the Boeing archives. Here's the Boeing historian's response to an email from the memoryhole:
Interesting, although after looking through Togetherness I'm not sure there is too much of value here beyond the obvious curiosity this represents. Or maybe I'm just not enough of a Pynchon scholar. (Yes, I understand the gravities rainbow - missile tech connection, but still...)- jim 5-06-2003 6:25 pm
War is Peace.
Freedom is Slavery.
Ignorance is Strength.
Fear is Security.
- mark 5-10-2003 8:01 am