| [vheissu] | [criticism] | [biblio] | [bio] | [misc] |
In the first place, my good friend Georgos Kyriazis (Athens, Greece), tireless translator —having published a Greek translation of Mason & Dixon—, offered to translate the TimeTable into Greek. He saw a first draft of this site and was so polite not to say it looked awful. He kept on encouraging me. Georgos by the way is an excellent musician and member of the classic ensemble Polyphonia. He has been collaborating on several recordings of 16th century Greek music (you may visit Polyphonia's site).
Dr. John M. Krafft (Miami, Florida), always so kind and gentle,
helped me to contact the right persons on the right places; he literally
knows everybody in the Pynchon community. By allowing me to use his name,
many gates were instantly opened. John is the Pynchon Notes co-editor.
And he said, back in 2001: 'there's always room for another Pynchon
site'. That gave me the courage to go on. Thank you, John.
Charles Hollander (living in Baltimore, Maryland), Pynchon addict for decades now, a fantastic guy who, outside the academic world, develops and expands the idea of Thomas Pynchon who uses the genre of Mennipean satire to write political fables. He is one of the few who has been studying Pynchon's early work, and to which extent Pynchon, his family and the States intertwine. And he's unbelievably witty and funny. Not following the classic paths, his contributions to the understanding of Pynchon's work are invaluable. Has very bad sleeping habits.
When mr. Pynchon answered a letter of student Thomas Hirsch, he may have had the year 1969 wrong. Probably it was 1968 —just a simple typographical error. This, and many other details on the life and times of mr. Pynchon, on his literary and scientific sources, or just fun things to know (did you know the chicken race called Pinchon?) were discovered by Stephen Tomaske (Los Angeles, California). The biographical section of this site would not have been possible without his tireless efforts: he showed me contradictions, suggested some nuances, told me where to find more information. And the speed with which he worked. . .
There were two conditions when collaborating with him: never was his name to be mentioned, and I had to offer him a drink during the site-specific Pynchon Conference in Cologne (June, 14-16 2002). He was to give there a lecture, together with Terry Reilly. He added a small phrase in his last message: 'if I can make it', to which I hardly payed any attention at the time. Some time later, I was contacted by John Tomaske, Steve's father, who informed me Steve suddenly passed away at the age of 46. During the conference, it became clear how much he was missed by everybody; organisers John Krafft and Hanjo Beressem (Cologne) dedicated the conference to Steve.
If you ever have the chance to watch the documentary 'In Search
Of The Mind of *p*', you'll see an interview with Steve. He was
a warm and generous friend.
| [^] | [about] |