From: Scribe1865-AT-aol.com
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 14:54:11 EST
Subject: PLC: Not with a Bang but a Book Award


Professor Irwin Corey accepts the National Book Award Fiction Citation for 
Thomas Pynchon and Gravity's Rainbow, Thursday, April 18, 1974,  Alice Tully 
Hall,  Lincoln Center, New York 

http://www.irwincorey.org/routines.html

Professor Irwin Corey:
    However... accept this financial stipulation - ah - stipend in behalf of, 
uh, Richard Python for the great contribution and to quote from some of the 
missiles which he has contributed...Today we must all be aware that protocol 
takes precedence over procedure. However you say - WHAT THE - what does this 
mean... in relation to the tabulation whereby we must once again realize that the 
great fiction story is now being rehearsed before our very eyes, in the Nixon 
administration... indicating that only an American writer can receive...the 
award for fiction, unlike Solzinitski whose fiction doesn't hold water. 
Comrades - friends, we are gathered here not only to accept on behalf of one recluse 
- one who has found that the world in itself which seems to be a time not of 
the toad - to quote even Studs TurKAL. And many people ask "Who are Studs 
TurKAL?" It's not "Who are Studs TurKAL?" it's "Who am Studs TurKAL?" 

This in itself as an edifice of the great glory that has gone beyond, and the 
intuitive feeling of the American people, based on the assumption that the 
intelligence not only as Mencken once said, "He who underestimates the American 
pubic - public, will not go broke." This is merely a small indication of this 
vast throng gathered here to once again behold and to perceive that which has 
gone behind and to that which might go forward into the future...we've got to 
hurdle these obstacles. This is the main deterrent upon which we have gathered 
our strength and all the others who say, "What the hell did that get?" - We 
don't know. 

We've got to perforce withhold the loving boy... And as Miller once said in 
one of his great novels- what did he ... that language is only necessary when 
communication is endangered. And you sit there bewildered, and Pinter who went 
further said "It is not the lack of communication but fear of communication." 
That's what the Goddamn thing is it's we fear - communication. Oh - 
fortunately the prize has only been given to authors - unlike the Academy Award which is 
given to a female and a male, indicating the derision of the human specie - 
God damn it! 

But we have no paranoia, and Mr. Pynchon has attained, and has created for 
himself serenity, and it is only the insanity that has kept him alive in his 
paranoia. We speak of the organ...of the orgasm...Who the hell wrote this? And 
the jury has determined to divide the prize between two writers - to Thomas 
Pynchon for his GRAVITY'S RAINBOW. Now GRAVITY'S RAINBOW is a token of this man's 
genius...he told me so himself...that he could...in other words, have been 
more specific, but rather than to allude the mundane, he has come to the 
conclusion that brevity is the importance of our shallow existence. God damn. Ladies 
and Gentlemen. To the distinguished panel on the, on the dais and to the other 
winners, for poetry and religion and science. The time will come when religion 
will outlive its usefulness. Marx, Groucho Marx, once said that religion is 
the opiate of the people. I say that when religion outlives its usefulness, 
then opium...will be the opiate...Ahh that's not a bad idea... 

All right...However, I want to thank Mr. Guinzburg, Tom Guinzburg of the 
Viking Press, who has made it possible for you people to be here this evening to 
enjoy the Friction Citation - the Fiction Citation. GRAVITY'S RAINBOW - a small 
contribution to a certain degree, since there are over three and a half 
billion people in the world today. 218 of them ... million live in the United 
States which is a very, very small amount compared to those that are dying 
elsewhere...Well, I say that you will be on the road to new horizons, for we who live 
in a society where sex is a commodity and a politician can become a TV 
personality, it's not easy to conform if you have any morality...I, I, I said that 
myself many years ago...But I do want to thank the bureau...I mean the 
committee, the organization for the $10,000 they've given out...tonight they made over 
$400,000 and I think that I have another appointment. I would like to stay 
here, but for the sake of brevity I, I must leave. I do want to thank you, I want 
to thank Mr. TurKAL. I want to thank Mr. Knopf who just ran through the 
auditorium* and I want to thank Breshnev, Kissinger - acting President of the 
Unites States - and also want to thank Truman Capote and thank you. 
_________________________________________________________________________
* Referring to the streaker who ran nude across the stage. 


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