About this site

Q & A || Contact

Since this site was launched in June 2002, a number of visitors has been asking the same questions. Here you find a résumé of these.

On this page, go to:
[+] Is there a site map?
[+] Why vheissu?
[+] Does the movie "Been Down So Long It Looks Up To Me" really exist?
[+] Where is Jules Siegel's Playboy piece?
[+] Why is the criticism lay out not MLA compliant?
[+] Contact vheissu

Is there a site map? [^]
"Is there a map of Vheissu?"
He hesitated. "No," he said. "No data ever got back, either to F.O. or to the Geographic Society. Only a report of failure."
[Thomas Pynchon, V., 172]

So: different reports of failure, listing all publicly accessible documents.

1. Biographical data, collecting some of the facts that are publicly known, and tracing back the history of the Pynchon family since a few centuries.  There are some links to additional information, ranging from William Pynchon's emigration to America in the 17th century, to an interview with mr. Pynchon's publisher at the time when Mason & Dixon was published.
2. Criticism. Contains a few articles, all in all over a 100 pages in print, concentrating on the early work.
3. Vineland.  Under construction.  Currently containing lots of links about this novel.
4. Slow Learner. Thomas Pynchon's much underestimated early stories get a little more attention here; while our man may have been a Slow Learner, according to his own words, this site is very slow in expanding this sections. There's a bit more on Mortality and Mercy in Vienna, and a bigger section on my favourite story, Low-Lands.
5. Bibliography. The results of a vheissu database which exports ready-to-publish reports.
6. Miscellaneous. Well, why not? Any catalogue has a category containing what's left.

This site contains pages in four languages: the main bulk is in English, to a lesser extent some pages are in Dutch, a very good friend provided me with a translation of the Pynchon Time Table in Greek, and currently (october 2005) under construction are a few French pages.

Why vheissu? [^]
If you ask that, you ought to read V.(start at page 168) ; and if you can't wait, look here for more information on that nightmarish country. Alpdrücken, the German word for nightmare, is an important motive in Gravity's Rainbow. And fictitious countries are a very old way of story-telling in Western literature.

Does the movie "Been Down So Long It Looks Up To Me" really exist? [^]
Yes it does.  It is so bad that it was never released on video, let alone DVD.  Check out the site on Richard Fariña and Mimi Mitchell.  The reviews are a great read. By the way: the 60's connection Pynchon - Fariña - Mitchell - Dylan has been subject of a fairly recent book.

Where is Jules Siegel's Playboy piece? [^]
Mr. Siegel assumed I was violating his copyrights. It is withdrawn. You can find it in the waste archives (where they belong). A minor comment on this piece could be that it was given a rather mythical status because it was for many years the only widely known piece, though most of its information could not be confirmed. The most important piece to date was published a year before the Playboy article by Matthew Winston in Critique (details in the bibliographic section). There seems to be a relation between Winston's article and Siegel's piece. If you are mastering the French language, do check out the Jean-François Fogel's excellent Libération article, which is based on interviews with family and friends.

Why is the criticism lay out not MLA compliant? [^]
For several reasons. First, MLA bibliographical rules are not a world wide standard. Second, this not a scientific web site. Third, the range of lemmata is broader than academically acceptable.

All comments, corrections, additions are very welcome.

Contact vheissu: [+] [^]
Don't expect to have an answer directly, because we think that it is OK to be a Luddite —phenomenon on which Pynchon's friend at Cornell Kirkpatrick Seale wrote a book. The bits and pieces that show no author's name are this site's responsibility.