The Identity of Thomas Pynchon

The Identity of Thomas Pynchon

The identity of Thomas Pynchon is as elusive as the sticky, complex webs of

meaning woven into his prose. As America's most "famous" hidden author,

Pynchon produces works which simultaneously deal with issues of

disappearance and meaning, of identity and nothingness in a fashion that

befuddles some and delights others. He speaks to the world from his

invisible pulpit, hiding behind a curtain of anonymity that safely

disguises his personality from the prying eyes of critics and fans alike.

Without a public author presence, readers are forced to derive the identity

of the author instead from the author's actual works. When searching for

the identity of Pynchon, and indeed the notion of identity itself, the

novels of Thomas Pynchon offer an interesting starting point.

Questions of identity and meaning are shrouded beneath a veil of conspiracy

in The Crying of Lot 49, Pynchon's second novel and his shortest.

Throughout the novel there are snatches of hidden agendas and mysterious

plans; it is a world run by Pierce Inverarity, a character who is dead when

the novel opens yet remains an active presence throughout the work. This

seems to fit Pynchon's situation rather nicely as the ghostly moderator of

a tired world, leading his main character Oedipa Maas on a quest for

meaning while blindly groping for clues about a conspiratorial mail system

known only as the Trystero. Oedipa's quest echos the quest of everyone; she

wishes for an identity that makes some sense within the framework of her

world. Thomas Pynchon, by erasing himself from the public sphere, is

questing for identity in his own right through his writings, letting Mrs.

Maas do the searching for him.

Little is known about Pynchon's life, and no one who knows him seems to be

willing to add to the miniscule pile of information currently available

about him. His most recent published photograph dates back to 1953.

Beginning at the beginning, he was born on May 8, 1937 in Glen Cove, New

York. He attended Cornell University and received a degree in English in

1959. He worked at Boeing Company in Seattle as a technical writer until

his first novel V. appeared in 1963 (Gray 70). From that point onward,

Pynchon vanished from the public eye. Information about any part of

Pynchon's life after V.