<p>First edition, presumed second printing without the crosses on front cover.</p>

Mortality and Mercy in Vienna

Literature & Fiction

PYNCHON, Thomas

Short Stories & Anthologies

Aloes Books

The Night

Patti Smith

Tom Verlaine

Poetry

<p>"Low-Lands", written while the Pynchon was an undergraduate at Cornell University and first published in "New World Writing" 16 (1960), is an explicit parody of T S Eliot's "The Waste Land". But further, "Low-Lands" evinces another influence: the writings of Cervantes, in particular "Don Quixote de la Mancha". Pynchon studied with Vladimir Nabokov at Cornell. During the 2nd semester of the academic year 1951-1952, Nabokov was visiting at Harvard where he delivered his famous Don Quixote lectures. Although no evidence explicitly documents that Nabokov gave the Cervantes lectures later at Cornell, the Russian novelist is likely to at least have included references to the Spanish masterpiece in his Cornell courses. In any case, Pynchon's writings in general reveal his voracious reading, and, in particular his interest in Hispanic literature. The mature Pynchon, looking back at "Low-Lands" wrote, "In a way this is more of a character sketch than a story... Oddly enough, I had not intended this to be Dennis's story at all -he was supposed to have been a straight man for Pig Bodine.". Dennis Flange, Pynchon's protagonist, is an unhappily married former "competent [naval] communications officer" who is quite unceremoniously thrown out of his house by his practical wife Cindy because of his poor choice of friends and lack of interest in his job. Dennis then stays overnight at the town dump with some of his unsavory friends; whereupon, he meets the beautiful gypsy midget Nerissa, with whom he decides to stay "for a while, at least". As is the case with Don Quixote, the character of Flange dominates the loose plot; as Pynchon comments, "his fantasies become increasingly vivid, [and] that's about all that happens". Yet "Low-Lands" clearly shares with Cervantes' novella, "La gitanilla", a pronounced fairy tale atmosphere.</p>

Low-Lands

Originally published in "The Saturday Evening Post" in December, 1964, this is the first separate publication of the story (which later appeared in the "Slow Learner" collection). The first edition was limited to 2,500 copies (limitation on rear cover). The story, set in a small town, follows the adventures of a group of young boys as they deal with their relations to the adults in the community. The boys find themselves caught between the stubborn racism of their parents' generation, and the civil rights era open mindedness they have grown into. Mead C3. 47 pages.

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