La Jornada: The mystery surrounding Thomas Pynchon began in our country: Félix Franco

American writer Thomas Pynchon, a constant candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, has been a great mystery. The beginning of this mystery happened in Mexico in 1963, said the narrator and chronicler Franco Félix.

The essayist told The Day that after reading Pynchon’s first novel, V.investigated and then wrote The Engineer Who Flew Out the Window: Pynchon in Mexico (1962-1964). “Very few people know that when it was published V.in 1963, he was living in Mexico City. It is not known why a kind of mythology has been created about the author. Something he wanted to avoid. It is ironic because by wanting to avoid it, people are more interested.”

Since then, various characters, themes and places in the work of the American novelist refer to our country, which is why Félix (Hermosillo, 1981) believes that Pynchon spent several years in Mexico, although he did not find much information about it.

The narrator explained that the author’s position Gravity’s rainbow (1973) es: I don’t need to give any interviews or explain my books. They have to defend themselves.and therefore did not appear in the media or at public events.

He said that in the 20th century, importance was given to the figure of the writer, unlike what happened in previous centuries, when the authors were political prisoners, lawyers or doctors, like Dostoevsky and Bulgakov. “From the 18th to the 20th centuries, they were not the subject of the novel itself, that is, Laurence Sterne was not interviewed about them.” Tristram Shandy.

The American has never raised it, added Felix, because the only time his words were recorded was in The lives and times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina and Richard Farina. “A book that has nothing to do with Pynchon, but it comes out there. Very few people know that.

It’s crazy that Thomas Pynchon hates the media. Many people say he’s a recluse or a social phobic, but not at all; he just doesn’t want himself to be the central figure in a story. The only interview he’s ever given is arguably in this book, but it’s about Fariña’s wedding to Mimi Baez in 1963.

The story that marked the origin of the Pynchon mystery occurred when the novel was published V.in March 1963. The New York Times He immediately sent a reporter to look for him in Mexico City and from there arose the legend that the author left through a window to avoid being photographed. It is very curious that not more than a week had passed since the book was published when the newspaper was already preparing an article, which came out in April without the writer’s image..

Pynchon explained the incident in a letter he sent from Guanajuato, the Sonoran author said, in which he narrates that when he arrived at the neighborhood where he lived he noticed that there was a man waiting outside, who was wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a black trench coat. Pynchon called his landlady and told her: Lie to him, tell him I’m not here. Even before he was famous, he hated the idea of ​​being featured in a story.

Over time, that story became the most romantic and poetic of the writer who escapes through the window, but the reality is even funnier and more entertaining, since he spent two days hiding in movie theaters, cafes and a small motel, and since the journalist would not leave, Pynchon decided to go to Guanajuato.

Franco Félix says that Pynchon discovered many things in Guanajuato, such as themes of the Mexican Revolution and “a narrative vein that would become a very crazy novel as well: Backlightingin which the characters visit Guanajuato and the fidelity of the descriptions, of the mummies and the pantheon through which they pass, could not have been imagined. He must have returned to that city. There is a very extensive investigation.

In this novel, Guanajuato, Zacatecas, Chihuahua and part of Sonora appear, because the protagonists travel in a hot air balloon. We are talking about Mexico at the beginning of the 20th century, in the turmoil of the Revolution.

The chronicler noted that in his narrative Pynchon approached characters such as Adolfo de la Huerta and Porfirio Díaz. “The research he did was so deep that he achieved a very faithful portrait of the narrative of the Mexican Revolution and its characters. I imagine he must read Spanish without problems, because many of his characters have discussions in this language.”

He must have been in Mexico for many years. I’ve heard of people who saw or met Pynchon at some point. I thought they were either kidding or lying, but after seeing this, seeing the letters he writes, he was in Mexico for a long time.

Felix recalled that once in a bar in Guadalajara he was told about a waiter who saw a man who He had had a beer and introduced himself as Thomas Pynchon. I couldn’t believe it. That proves that he was in Guadalajara. He was always up and down. The only thing he didn’t want was to appear in the photographs so that they wouldn’t follow him..

In his book about the American writer, Felix shares several letters that Pynchon wrote in Mexico, from the capital and other places. “With these letters he constructed a speculative account of the places he has been and the relationships between what he is saying and his books, especially about Backlighting”.