# So who is Thomas Pynchon? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 11, 2002, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-is-thomas-pynchon/123450 "2002-08-11T23:41:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dreaming\_of\_Maria\_Callas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@Dreaming\_of\_Maria\_Callas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dreaming_of_Maria_Callas)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-is-thomas-pynchon/123450/1 "2002-08-11T23:41:01Z")
I’ve read the works of Thomas Pynchon, but they haven’t really told me anything about who the man is. He’s been called a notorious recluse, and even his acceptance speech for the National Book Award in 1973 was read by another person. But I wonder, am I missing some kind of joke here that everyone else has already got? I once heard of a newspaper column whose writer was actually the pseudonym of the guy who was called a mere assistant (I forgot the name, The Straight Hope or something). Is Pynchon the same, the pseudonym of a guy publicly known for other reason? Of course, maybe the other possibility is that the hallucinogens he was taking that inspired Gravity’s Rainbow actually so warped him that he can’t go out in public. UnuMondo ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-is-thomas-pynchon/123450/2 "2002-08-12T00:06:26Z")
As far as I know, Thomas Pynchon is … well … Thomas Pynchon. I remember reading an article a while back where the author was trying to track him down and was able to come up with a high school graduation bio. He is a notorious recluse, but from what I’ve read, any attempts to identify him as anyone else (J.D. Salinger has often been mentioned as one possibility) have fallen short. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-is-thomas-pynchon/123450/3 "2002-08-12T01:12:08Z")
Pynchon is Pynchon. Yes, he is reclusive, but there is evidence he exists. It’s known, for instance, that he was working for Boeing for a time. (A biographer managed to track down a coworker. However, even then, Pynchon didn’t talk about his writing – even though “V” had been accepted for publication, he never told anyone he worked with.) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-is-thomas-pynchon/123450/4 "2002-08-12T03:08:24Z")
A few years back an enterprising reporter actually tracked Pynchon down to his home on the Upper West Side of NYC for an article in, I believe, Esquire. They printed a picture of his back (or somebody’s back). Pynchon was annoyed and the literary community in NYC quickly pulled their ranks together against the trashiness of stalking such an eminent literary gentleman who wished to remain undisturbed. Or something like that. It may not be Esquire since I can’t find a reference to it on Google. But the gist is correct. Maybe it was New York magazine, as there is a reference to them “outing” Pynchon in this [Salon](http://archive.salon.com/media/1998/09/22media.html) article that has some recent sightings of the man. > [@](#): > > Thomas Pynchon appears pretty sprightly for an old guy of 60. He wears a red baseball cap with some swirling Asian calligraphy on it. He has a white mustache. His former barn door smile is apparently long fixed, but the construction of his upper palate is still askew. He sports plain wire-frame glasses. Gray hair – a little unkempt, needs barbering. Gray jacket. Gray shirt. He’s just a guy. I watched the tape over and over while a monstrous voice boomed in my head: “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.” There. Satisfied now? ---
**Author:** ![ndorward](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c2a13f/32.png) [@ndorward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ndorward)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-is-thomas-pynchon/123450/5 "2002-08-12T03:10:16Z")
Thomas Pynchon is Thomas Pynchon, of course: it’s not a pseudonym. A few years back a particularly persistent & intrusive journalist managed to figure out where he lived & actually paparazzi-style hunted him down on the street & photographed him as he was out walking with his son. He wasn’t particularly “reclusive” (i.e. was living a normal life in the city), just trying to avoid publicity. ---
**Author:** ![Adam\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@Adam\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Adam_P)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-is-thomas-pynchon/123450/6 "2002-08-12T04:51:51Z")
Pynchon has, over the years, been accused of being the pseudonym of Don DeLillo, William Gaddis, or a even a group of collaborating authors. This was after years of reclusiveness, including an incident in which the young Pynchon jumped out of a window to avoid a reporter. And Pynchon looks so dorky in the single photo we have of him (yearbook photo) that many see it as a joke. But, he in fact exists, and can be seen walking–or more precisely, skulking–down Central Park West in a piece of footage that CNN shot outside his building a few years ago. You can see it at their site. I don’t think the Salinger comparison holds up, though, Salinger is an angry hermit living in the woods and hasn’t produced a book in nearly half a century. Pynchon, on the other hand has calmed down a bit in recent years. He reportedly lives a normal writer’s existence in NYC, having lunch with DeLillo among others, and came out with his latest book just a few years ago. He just doesn’t give interviews or allow photgraphs. Beckett didn’t allow anyone to record his voice–that doesn’t make him a paranoid freak. And, let’s face it, Pynchon just blows Salinger away as a writer. The first poster mentioned Pynchon writing Gravity’s Rainbow while on acid. This story comes form a notorious Playboy article in which the writer claims to have known and hung out with Pynchon duing the 70s while he was writing GR. No one knows if the article is true or not. A picture or an anecdote about Pynchon is considered a valuable commodity so why not just make something up? I just don’t see GR as Naked Lunch. Nearly every sentence in that books has some kind of inter-textual meaning or reference and the book as a whole is so inrtricately constructed that the author had to have been sober most of the time to write it. The only thing that rings true in that article is that bit about Pynchon getting a kick out of a neighbor’s kid doing an impression of Shirley Temple singing “Good Ship Lolliipop”. (The one thing I would like to see, though, is the enhanced photo mentioned in that Salon article…) ---
**Author:** ![widdershins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f0a364/32.png) [@widdershins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/widdershins)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-is-thomas-pynchon/123450/7 "2002-08-13T06:33:45Z")
Pynchon was friends and college roomates with Richard Farina, who later married Joan Baez’s sister, Mimi. IIRC, Pynchon was best man at the wedding. Pynchon was apparently interviewed, by fax I think, for David Hajdu’s book about the Farinas, Baez, and Bob Dylan: _Positively 4th Street_. Haven’t read it, but I did read articles about it and Pynchon when it was released. _Entertainment Weekly_ used to hammer on the Pynchon/Salinger “connection” like it was a running gag.