Email Interview on Thomas Pynchon

J.Rentilly, Robert Bramkamp

Email Interview on Thomas Pynchon, August 2006
J.Rentilly, Robert Bramkamp

J. Rentilly
It is a simple, inarguable statement that Thomas Pynchon is among the greatest American authors, living or dead. Very few authors have ever captured the Zeitgeist, forecast the future, illuminated the past, and peeled to the core of the human heart and mind with as much wit, clarity, style, audacity, and guts as Mr. Pynchon. Your turn now… Tell me what makes Mr. Pynchon such a meaningful writer, why his work has endured, what these books have offered and revealed to readers.

R. Bramkamp
His work is unique because of the access to complexity it offers. He never spares the reader by offering a guided roundtrip, but leads us to encounter the open questions – this approach is still unequalled and even more valuable in times of unhealthy reduction of complexity.

J. Rentilly
What influence do you believe Mr. Pynchon’s books have had on literature specifically, and on culture, more generally speaking?

R. Bramkamp
Maybe I can contribute my German experience:
1. Pynchon has launched a fan phenomenon over here that operates almost like a secret society. Every German newspaper seems to have at least one Pynchon specialist amongst its writing team who responds immediately to anything related to Pynchon.
2. On the other hand, this community and this discourse on Pynchon doesn’t have a robust presence in contemporary German everyday mass communication. For instance, in the highly improved Peenemuende Museum Book shop of 2006, »Gravity’s Rainbow« is still a side phenomenon on the lower shelves (but at least visible). Unfortunately the standards set by »Gravity’s Rainbow« are neither adopted nor met by contemporary literary practice (as far as I know). They find a corresponding dialogue, though, in Alexander Kluge’s stories about the »century of the engineers«.
3. The most enduring influence of Pynchon’s work in Germany was raised by cultural studies, especially by Friedrich Kittler, who appears briefly in »Pruefstand7« as a Ghost/Spirit, like Bianca. Kittler connected the ideas of »Crying of Lot 49«, »V« and »Gravity’s Rainbow« (»the most precise novel of all«) with his complex approach to technology, which has had an international resonance in the field of literary criticism and cultural studies since the mid 80s.

J. Rentilly
What do you think is a key theme of Mr. Pynchon’s writing? How is that relevant to you, personally, and to our culture, more generally speaking?

R. Bramkamp
For me, his key theme is our necessary approach to complexity. It appears as a frightening and wonderful challenge. In strict opposition to all religions of simplicity and instant understanding, he suggests looking at things through the many eyes of people who may be separated in time and space, but who are involved – a multi-voiced encyclopedic narration that takes account of the fact that “personal density is proportional to bandwidth in time”. (Quoted from memory. Can’t find the GR quote page#.)

J. Rentilly
Tell me how Mr. Pynchon’s work has evolved over the years. According to several authors I’ve interviewed for this story, they’ve tended to »peter out« around the age of 45. Do you think this is the case for Mr. Pynchon?

R. Bramkamp
Of course not.

J. Rentilly
What do you think a reader might take from reading the books of Mr. Pynchon, notably GRAVITY’S RAINBOW, which would seem to be a key book for you?

R. Bramkamp
The international view, which unmasks the national theatrics. The encyclopedic structure, which fuels curiosity and provides eye-opening knowledge. The multi-voiced narration, which is free of simplifying viewpoints and banal action schema. And the non-naturalistic, fantastic storytelling (using all the benefits of Menippean satire as described by Bachtin), which enriches the narrated world with its numerous possibilities that would otherwise remain unrecognized.

J. Rentilly
Clearly, the mythology surrounding Mr. Pynchon today is larger than life. The hunt for the »real man«, »the man behind the books« – the search to out him, capture him in some way – has nearly outsized the appreciation of the books he writes. Please tell me your thoughts on this? What is the wildest rumor or myth you’ve heard about Mr. Pynchon? Where do these stories come from? Is this type of speculation detrimental to appreciating the author’s works, or does it add additional layers to the works? What do we know for sure about Mr. Pynchon, and how important is that to appreciating his work anyway?

R. Bramkamp
It seems helpful that we don’t know much about the real Thomas Pynchon. This helps us appreciate his work, because, more than a living human being, we might be willing to trust a projected authorial figure, an all-seeing narrating consciousness, which, as result of an intense reading, emerges from the multiple threads of »Gravity’s Rainbow«. Pynchon’s eccentric Anti-PR Strategy fuels the readers »belief« in complex readings: »Beyond simple steel erection, the rocket was an entire system, won away from a feminine darkness«. This includes also a reading of visibility.

J. Rentilly
Pure speculation: in your opinion, does living a life of seclusion enhance Mr. Pynchon’s work, or limit it in some way? Many authors I’ve recently interviewed believe it’s essential to be out and about in the world, while Mr. Pynchon apparently lives a more cautious, selective life.

R. Bramkamp
Just technically: the author might have gained an unexpectedly wide range of research opportunities by not being a public face.

J. Rentilly
In your estimation, when was Mr. Pynchon working at the peak of his powers? What book or passage left the deepest impression on you, personally, and on the culture in general?

R. Bramkamp
I don’t want to speak of a peak because his novels operate in an interconnected way within their own time zone. »The Crying of Lot 49« and »Gravity’s Rainbow« hit me most decades after they were published. For me, Slothrop’s journey into Pynchon’s reinvention of a wider German narrative landscape, different from sober and politically correct postwar literature, not only rich in horror, was a fascinating experience. Here is the fitting quote, which also became the starting line for Robert Forster’s (Go Betweens) interpretation of the final song of »Gravity’s Rainbow«: ?But somebody has already educated him. Something… that dreams Prussian and wintering among their meadows, in whatever cursive lashmarks wait across the flesh of their sky so bleak, so incapable of any sheltering, wait to be summoned….No. No – he still says »their«, but he knows better. His meadows now, his sky…his own cruelty.? The song is available (Creative Commons) as free mp3 download at www.pruefstand7.de; English version/downloads: one version unplugged, one with UFA-orchestra.

J. Rentilly
Tell me how you obtained rights to GRAVITY’S RAINBOW, how your project came about, and what, if any, involvement Mr. Pynchon had, before, during, or after production

R. Bramkamp
My idea to film a »character study of the rocket« was induced by the space revival that was launched by the space industry and advertisement campaigns in 1998 in Germany and abroad. It looked to me like a simple rerun of worn out fantasies motivated by a lack of any new mission. It was also extremely simplistic and depressing. A correction seemed dew. So when I began to consider the various realities in which the rocket plays the main character parts, as a Pynchon fan, I had to deal with the rocket as a literary fact too. With the help of John Krafft and Hanjo Berressem, I approached Pynchon’s agent, Melanie Jackson, and asked for a »no objections« concerning filmed quotes of »Gravity’s Rainbow«. Amazingly, I got an answer. And it was very clear and generous. Melanie Jackson asked me a) if »Gravity’s Rainbow« was a component or the basis of the whole project. Thomas Pynchon wouldn’t consider a »no objections« if »Gravity’s Rainbow« was the basis. This gave me the opportunity to point out what my film was about, to mention the themes and contemporary subjects approached, and to explain that »Gravity’s Rainbow« should be an irreplaceable part, but not the basis.
Among other things, I was also asked whether I would include the »Gravity’s Rainbow«- inspired photo-works of a Berlin-based artist named Armin Colckers who had contacted Pynchon some years earlier. This started »The Colckers Quest«. Only in 2002, while presenting the book on the film »Pruefstand7« in Berlin at Café Burger, did it become clear that the man, now called Armin Völckers, really did exist and had produced visualizations relating to »Gravity’s Rainbow«. He kept quiet while in the audience but later outed himself to Mario Mentrup who plays his part in my movie. At that time Colckers himself was a film figure.

More info and DVD (NTSC and PAL, German/English, all regions; playable word wide) is available at www.pruefstand7.de and www.bramkamp.info