Thomas Pynchon defends Ian McEwan’s use of details from a war-time memoir in his novel. I like the fact that Pynchon’s argument rests not so much on the indispensability of borrowing, and the use of the acknowledgments page by a writer for the purpose of recording such debt, but on what one might call bio-aesthetics. For more details or to see the letter in larger type, go here. Via Maud Newton.

(BTW: re the phrase used by McEwan from the diary: “dabs gentian violet on ringworm.” “Gentian violet” is a noun–and refers to a dye derived from rosaniline, used in chemistry as an indicator and in medicine as a fungicide, bactericide, anthelmintic, and in the treatment of burns.)

thomas-pynchon-ian-mcewan