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Dissertation M.C. Cissell December 2016 ARC OF THE ABSENT AUTHOR: THOMAS PYNCHON’S TRAJECTORY FROM ENTROPY TO GRACE A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of English and German Philology In partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of English Philology Matthew Clayton Cissell December 2016 Director: María Felisa López Liquete Co-director: Ángel Chaparro Sainz (c)2017 MATTHEW CLAYTON CISSELL Abstract The central thesis of this dissertation is that Thomas Pynchon has come to occupy a specific position in the field of literature and that this can be seen in his latest novel, Against the Day , in which he is not so much writing about the past or even the present, but about what the present can become, about where it might be driven. Pynchon is self-consciously exploring the politics in the discursive field in which his book is situated, using the fin-de-siècle to highlight the ways that the present is geared toward catastrophe and that people, in a dans macabre , hurl themselves toward that endgame. The theoretical view and methodology behind my analysis of the novel draws to a great extent on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, specifically his sociological literary analysis. This sets an academic precedent in studies of Pynchon’s novels but it also requires applying an approach that has several necessary and onerous steps. In order to see how the social space of the novel is a refracted image of the author’s own social world one must analyse the field of power, after that the literary field and the positions of agents, next the space of possibilities, all of which help one understand the genesis of the author’s habitus and thus his trajectory and the creative project that develops. In the end Pynchon’s position in the literary field should be clearer as should the position of Against the Day in Pynchon’s trajectory. As such this approach requires more than just an analysis of the text; it must make use of reviews, essays or letters written by Pynchon, book sales numbers and even appearances on The Simpson’s . iii Acknowledgements The work that this dissertation represents would not have been possible without the help and support of my professors, fellow scholars and friends, and my family. First I owe thanks to the professors of my alma mater, Southern Illinois University; people like Hans Rudnick, Clarisse Zimra, Clement Hawes, and Richard Lanigan. They forced me to question my answers as well as my questions and thus prepared me in no small part for the wonderful opportunity that the University of the Pais Vasco has provided me in the form of its doctoral program “Literature and Literary Science”. In the course of the UPV doctoral program I was exposed to many new thinkers and authors thanks to its cross-departmental nature that allowed me to study under professors from various faculties; a most enriching experience for a fledgling academic. Special thanks is in order for Professor María Felisa López Liquete for supervising my dissertation and putting me on the path to serious Pynchon study, which has been nothing short of marvelous. The time and help she has given me along the way cannot be easily summarized. It would not only be thoughtless but dishonest not to mention the friends and fellow scholars that have also helped me along the way. First, I must thank John Krafft at the University of Miami. A walking Pynchon database that constitutes a major pillar in the Pynchon academic community (a co-founder of the now defunct Pynchon Notes ) and a very kind person, Professor Krafft has always been very helpful and taken time to respond to my inquiries. I will also extend thanks here to all the people who contribute to the Pynchon list serve and thus constitute a community of readers (composed of specialist and non-specialists) who are an example of the way that readings of a book are exchanged and circulated. Beyond the world of Pynchon scholarship I want to express my heartfelt thanks to Bo Ekelund (Stockholm University) and John Speller (University of Lodz) for their help and encouragement regarding the application of Pierre Bourdieu’s work to literary study. I should thank my friend David Choberka (University of Michigan) for the help he has given me over the years in proofing and editing as well iv as his ever fruitful view as a scholar of intellectual history. Thanks also to my friend John Wright (University of Guelph) for firing my inquiry into philosophical works and thinkers. Thanks also goes out to my wife Belén and my parents for playing their own part in my pursuit of a doctorate. My wife has accepted the cost and accumulation of books and conferences over the years without a murmur, and helped me where she could. My parents have both helped me obtain materials and tried to provide me counsel based on their own postgraduate experience. The people mentioned above, professors, parents and friends, are the ones who often inspire us or make our intellectual pursuit possible and so they are responsible in part for the work herein. However, they cannot share any part of the blame for the deficiencies that this work may suffer from, for these are all of my own making. v Table of Contents Abstract iii Acknowledgments iv Table of Contents vi List of Figures ix Abbreviations x Dedication xi Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Overview of Objectives, Method and Dissertation Structure 3 Chapter 2 Explanation and Synopsis 6 Bourdieu’s Challenge 6 My Route to Pynchon Historical Novels 9 Pynchon: Novelist of Historical Fiction or Postmodernism 11 Synopsis of Against the Day 13 On the Cover 14 Chums of Chance 15 Traverse Family 19 Scientists, Mathematicians, and Spies 20 Chapter 3 Outlining the Research Program and Approaching the Literary Field 22 A Note in Terms and Method: Why Bourdieu? 29 Locating Pynchon in the Literary Field: A Critique of Reviews of AD 36 Chapter 4 Pynchon’s Critics and Readers 54 Part 1 - Excursus: Pynchon’s Wood-Be Nemesis 54 Part 2 - The Market’s Measure 64 Part 3 - Who has a Penchant for Pynchon? 68 Chapter 5 Pynchon Plays the Field 73 The Field of Power and the US Literary Field 77 The US Literary Field: Pynchon’s Positions and Launch 85 vi Poles and Positions: Pynchon and Publishing 93 Chapter 6 Habitus and Trajectory 103 The Meyerhof Salon 113 Pynchon’s Political Habitus 120 Thomas Pynchon’s Trajectory 128 Launch Platform 129 Initiating Launch 130 Take Off 133 Into the Literasphere 135 Pynchon Reaches Out 142 Ekelund’s Approach to Trajectory Study 144 Chapter 7 Analysis of the Space of Works 150 Space of Positions 152 Space of Position-Takings 154 Space of Possibles 163 Space of Works 166 Double Refraction, Doubling and Binaries 171 Pynchon’s Use of Multiple Genres 174 Chronotopes in Against the Day 176 Strategic Choice of Content: Thematic and Problematic 177 Chapter 8 Pynchon’s Point of View as an Author 182 The Creative Project 185 Against the Day : A Global Novel? 192 Chapter 9 Arcing Through and Overarching Against the Day 198 The Author’s World and the World around the Author 201 Kit is to Pynchon as Frédéric is to Flaubert? 203 A Homology of Double Refusal 205 Movement in Against the Day 217 vii Chapter 10 Of Cones and Conics: Structuring Structures in Pynchon’s Novels 223 Ellipses and Elliptical Structures in Against the Day 225 The Long Return 230 Arcs in Against the Day 236 The First Arc, the Last Arc, the Apocalyptic Arc 237 Chapter 11 Prelude to a Conclusion 242 The Importance of Pynchon: The Circulation of his Works 242 Chapter 12 Conclusion 246 Summary of the Dissertation 247 Goals and Achievements 249 Implications of the Research 251 Future Research Possibilities Based on this Dissertation 254 Endgame: Grace, or… 256 Appendix I : Book Reviews of Against the Day 259 Appendix II: The US Literary Field in the Early 1960’s 260 Appendix III: The Structure of Social Space in Against the Day 261 Appendix IV : Conics, Ellipses, and Ellipsoid 263 Appendix V: Book Sales – Bourdieu’s “Two Modes of Ageing” 264 Bibliography 266 viii List of Figures Figure 1 – The Field of Cultural Production and the Field of Power 26 Figure 2 – General Structure of an Autonomous Cultural Field 77 Figure 3 – Map of Kit and Pynchon’s Respective Initial Geographic Paths 211 Figure 4 – The Social Trajectories of Kit Traverse and Thomas Pynchon 211 Figure 5 – Overlapping Ellipses in Two–Dimensional Depictions 228 Figure 6 – Lew Basnight’s Elliptical Path through Against the Day 235 ix Abbreviations In order to facilitate in-text citation of some of the books that are frequently referred to in this dissertation, I provide the following list of abbreviations. AD Against the Day BL Bourdieu and Literature FCP Field of Cultural Production IOW In Other Words RA The Rules of Art SL Slow Learner RL The World Republic of Letters - x Dedication I dedicate this dissertation to my parents, Homer and Bonnie Cissell, without whom my past is unimaginable. And to my wife Belén without whom the present is less bearable. And finally, to my daughter Gaia who helps me hope for tomorrow. - How could they ever have crossed trajectories? (AD 1030) xi Chapter 1 Introduction “To argue on behalf of Pynchon’s importance as a writer would be supererogatory. Placing him in a larger context is more difficult. More difficult, because he seems aware of all the literature that preceded him as well as writing that surrounds him,” (90) as critic and scholar Tony Tanner wrote in 1982 in his book Thomas Pynchon .
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