Diana Gill of Morrow/Eos hosts a roundtable of John Crowley, Tim Powers, Jeff Ford and James Morrow, talking about secret histories. Since Pynchon's on everyone's lips this week, here's a relevant snippet from John Crowley:
Maybe you could distinguish between books that are about secret histories (like The Crying of Lot 49) and secret histories themselves. What Pynchon got was that we'd rather be titillated by the possibility of the secret history than to hear it explicated. A wonderful new book out now explicates the many variants on Hollow Earth stories--from Ignatius Donnelly to Edgar Rice Burroughs and beyond. I'd say that the Hollow Earth story is about as perfect a paradigm of an actual secret history as Pynchon's is the paradigm about one. Of course I attempted a combo or trifecta in the Aegypt series, about, embodying, and losing a secret history. (Note: I said attempted.)
Read the whole thing. And, apparently, there are more installments to come, which makes me very happy.
this post makes me feel sort of retarded.
i think i'm allergic to thomas pynchon.
Posted by: jennifer, aka literaticat | November 21, 2006 at 13:25
No feeling that way allowed. It all boils down to: Secret histories are the coolest!
Posted by: Gwenda | November 21, 2006 at 13:29
Yeah, there have to be more installments, right? 'Cause Morrow hasn't said a word yet.
Signed, Dave, who is waiting for notification from Amazon that his pre-ordered copy of the new Pynchon is on the way . . .
Posted by: Dave Schwartz | November 21, 2006 at 15:32
Gwenda--
I'm so glad you're enjoying this! It was a lot of fun to put together,
and I'm planning on more in the future.
All best,
Diana
Posted by: Diana | November 29, 2006 at 10:15
It was wonderful. Yes, more, please!
Posted by: Gwenda | November 29, 2006 at 10:59