Book contents
- Thomas Pynchon in Context
- Thomas Pynchon in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Times and Places
- Chapter 1 Biography
- Chapter 2 Letters and Juvenilia
- Chapter 3 Nonfiction
- Chapter 4 East Coast
- Chapter 5 West Coast
- Chapter 6 Europe and Asia
- Chapter 7 Africa and Latin America
- Chapter 8 Geographies and Mapping
- Chapter 9 The Eighteenth Century
- Chapter 10 The Nineteenth Century
- Chapter 11 The Twentieth Century
- Chapter 12 The Twenty-First Century
- Chapter 13 History and Metahistory
- Part II Culture, Politics, and Society
- Part III Approaches and Readings
- Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 2 - Letters and Juvenilia
from Part I - Times and Places
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 May 2019
- Thomas Pynchon in Context
- Thomas Pynchon in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Times and Places
- Chapter 1 Biography
- Chapter 2 Letters and Juvenilia
- Chapter 3 Nonfiction
- Chapter 4 East Coast
- Chapter 5 West Coast
- Chapter 6 Europe and Asia
- Chapter 7 Africa and Latin America
- Chapter 8 Geographies and Mapping
- Chapter 9 The Eighteenth Century
- Chapter 10 The Nineteenth Century
- Chapter 11 The Twentieth Century
- Chapter 12 The Twenty-First Century
- Chapter 13 History and Metahistory
- Part II Culture, Politics, and Society
- Part III Approaches and Readings
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
Thomas Pynchon’s letters are often sought after to provide clarity. The approximately three dozen available complete letters – along with extracts from others and juvenilia in letter form – supply material for interpretation as we attempt to develop a clearer view of a life, or a mind, that has been mostly mediated to us through autobiographical near-silence. In an undated letter denying critic Charles Hollander’s request to publish a collection of his short stories, Pynchon concludes, “Of Course silence is hard to interpret. If it wasn’t they’d call it ‘English,’ or something.” Sometimes, silence would not do: In another letter, one declining the prestigious Howell’s Medal for Fiction, Pynchon tells Richard Wilbur, president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters at the time, that there “appears to be only one way to say no, and that’s no.”
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- Information
- Thomas Pynchon in Context , pp. 15 - 22Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019