The Identity Of Thomas Pynchon

Part I of Essay
is as elusive as the sticky, complex webs of meaning woven into his prose. As America's most "famous" hidden author, Pynchon produces works which simultaneously deal with issues of disappearance and meaning, of identity and nothingness in a fashion that befuddles some and ....

Part II of Essay
.... an active presence throughout the work. This seems to fit Pynchon's situation rather nicely as the ghostly moderator of a tired world, leading his main character Oedipa Maas on a quest for meaning while blindly groping for clues about a conspiratorial mail system known only as the Trystero. Oedipa's quest echos the quest of everyone; she wishes for an identity that makes some sense within the framework of her world. Thomas Pynchon, by erasing himself from the public sphere, is questing for identity in his own right through his writings, lett ....