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Michael Chabon on Meeting Thomas Pynchon

from the VULTURE.COM ARTICLE on November 20, 2016:

“ Michael Chabon on His New Book, Why Bob Dylan Deserves the Nobel Prize, and President Trump’s America “ by Boris Kachka

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Yes, the Nazi mastermind of the V-2 missile whom the U.S. conscripted to develop the technology that got us to the moon. And an inspiration for Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. Was Pynchon a big influence? He’s one of my favorite writers. I have at least one Pynchon Easter egg in every one of my books going back to Mysteries of Pittsburgh.

What was the one in The Mysteries of Pittsburgh? There are two Japanese characters who make a very brief appearance in a party scene. They have the same names as the two Japanese soldiers who are stranded on this island in the Pacific just before the detonation of the bomb in Hiroshima in Gravity’s Rainbow. Takeshi and Ichizo.

And how did it play into this book? I had always been fascinated by the history of the space program. I had known about Wernher von Braun the way a lot of people did. His Nazi past was certainly not a secret. And then reading Gravity’s Rainbow for the first time and not being sure how much was based on fact — actually it turns out it’s heavily based on fact. So when I suddenly realized I’m writing about rockets and this grandfather and knowing also that he had served in Army Intelligence in World War II — a brother of my grandmother’s served in Army Intelligence — it kind of sounds like you might be heading toward Wernher von Braun territory, and then I’ll be able to play with Gravity’s Rainbow. It’ s a part of my basic motivation of writing, which is that fan-fiction impulse. The first thing I ever wrote was a Sherlock Holmes story — a piece of fan fiction. This book is in some ways fan fiction on Gravity’s Rainbow.

Did you ever get to meet Pynchon? I met him one time. Out of the blue, I used whatever secret channels I could avail myself of to invite him to lunch. I said I was coming to New York and I had just read Against the Day, which I completely loved — my second favorite of his books, or maybe even almost a tie with Gravity’s Rainbow. I said, Why not? What’s the worst that can happen? He won’t answer or he’ll say no. And to my surprise he accepted my invitation through many, many intermediaries—cutouts, they call them in spy novels. I took him to lunch at a steak restaurant down on the West Side. I don’t know why I thought he would like the steak restaurant. It turns out he was not a super-big meat-eating kind of dude.

Was it a fun conversation? It was a very curious conversation. It was very much like having a conversation with a character in a Thomas Pynchon novel. There was a lot of talk about made-for-television movies of the 1970s.

and from THE TELEGRAPH.CO.UK ARTICLE on January 29, 2017:

Michael Chabon interview: 'Memories have little relationship to the truth' by Tim Martin

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Any novelist writing about Operation Paperclip and the German rocket programme must also operate in the shadow of Thomas Pynchon, whose novel Gravity’s Rainbow (1973) explored similar territory with a blend of madcap comedy and darkness. “Oh, definitely,” says Chabon cheerily when I mention it. “Of all the writers, his books – especially Gravity’s Rainbow and Against the Day – are the only books where I’ve ever had a feeling somewhere between 'I wish I’d written this’ and 'Maybe I could have written this’. I don’t want to say I can write as well as Pynchon, but the things he’s interested in are the things I’m interested in. That’s how I feel about his books. Like he’s writing for me.”

A few years ago, he says, he had the chance to return the favour. Pynchon is famously averse to publicity – he never gives interviews, and only a tiny number of pictures of him have ever circulated – but this proscription clearly doesn’t extend to other writers.

Working “through lots of John le Carré cut-outs, dead drops and secret communications through many channels”, Chabon was able to get a message to Pynchon and invite him to lunch. What did they talk about? “It was the most Pynchonian meal and conversation,” he says cautiously. “I don’t know why I thought a steakhouse would be a good choice for him; he was not really a big steak guy. All he wanted to talk about, really, was made-for-TV movies of the Eighties.” He raises an eyebrow. “One thing he really did not want to talk about was how much I loved his books.”