Finally (Part 2)

I still haven't really decided what to tackle next, as a read, but in the meantime, I picked up Pynchon's collection of early short-stories called Slow Learner. It has, in the twenty page introduction, what's usually assumed to be the only autobiographical sketch anyone'll ever get from the reclusive Pynchon. The stories are okay, some less so, some more. Unmistakably from the same voice that fans love, but less developed and less awesome.

Then I started reading reviews online...some people were talking trash--about the stories, about the writer, but mostly about themselves...about how they were "frighteningly intimidated" by Pynchon's works.

It looks like Norm and I entered the world of Pynchon fanaticism through the most unlikely door--having read his longest work, Against the Day, first. The next work Norm read was Pynchon's first novel, V., whereas the second one I read was Gravity's Rainbow. It seems like anyone trying to get readers to take on Pynchon suggests they start with The Crying of Lot 49, then move on to V. or Vineland (...Lot 49 is only 150+ pages). I still agree wit Norm; start with Vineland, move on to ...Lot 49...

In any case, in Slow Learner, there's a story that takes place split between a Libyan desert-beach town and Cairo, in 1898, and involves characters Porpentine, the Wrens (Sir Alastair, Victoria and Mildred), and both Goodfellow and Bongo-Shatfsbury. These names mean nothing to anyone who didn't read V., and the story is re-tooled to fit in that novel, down to the character names, relationship triangles, and basic action. In fact, it almost clears up some of the mysteriousness from that specific section in V.

I'll shutup now...