After posting yesterday about the paucity of reviews of AGAINST THE DAY by women, and about whether there is, in fact, some sort of gender bias that leaves women shying away from Thomas Pynchon‘s work, the reactions are rolling in. Richard Hellinga‘s experience dovetailed with yesterday’s post. “All the Pynchon fans I’ve known and met were/are men, and always EXTREMELY proud of the fact that THEY read PYNCHON, the proudly difficult novelist who shows you all the conspiracies about how the world REALLY works.”
But others wrote in to say differently. “While I can’t say that each and every one of my book-loving girlfriends feels similarly, I can assure you that many of them have read and enjoyed every word,” says ‘Miss Gretchen‘ of her Pynchon passion, which saw her waiting for her copy at midnight last night. “People like me don’t always show up on the radar. We’re poor (I know a lot of schoolteachers and starving artists) and read our books from the library (I’m making an exception for this one, the new Borders in my small town assured me that it would be 30% off, right off the bat) and most people I know are too busy to do much on the internet other than send an email here or there. Maybe read a foreign newspaper online.”
More, shall we say, cheeky was one anonymous publishing insider who wondered: “Do I have to send pics of nekkid boobs pressed Against the Day to verify? Let me know, I have several volunteer photogs lined up.” If that’s the case, I suspect another contest may well be in order, as long as it errs on the softer side of NSFW…