“Somewhere I had come up with the notion that one’s personal life had nothing to do with fiction, when the truth, as everyone knows, is nearly the direct opposite.”
–Thomas Pynchon, ‘Slow Learner’

Thomas Pynchon maintains such a low profile as to make J. D. Salinger seem like an extrovert. But, unlike Salinger, Pynchon has remained productive in his exile, whilst assiduously dodging the media circus.

Here’s the biographical info inside his most recent tome, ‘Mason & Dixon’:

“Thomas Pynchon is the author of V., The Crying …

Why doesn’t anybody ever talk about the experimental literature of the Vietnam War era?

There seems to be no such thing as a “Hippie Generation” in fiction or poetry. This is surprising, since the 60’s and 70’s produced so much good music, art and film. These years were charged with political and social drama, and it occurred to me to take a fresh look at the writings of these years to observe exactly what shape literature took during this time.

I began the inquiry by …