Mr. Pynchon Goes to Iowa: The Search for Community in the Later Novels

Abstract

In much of his work, Thomas Pynchon has avoided the Midwest as a setting, and criticized the region as a cultural wasteland. However, his aversion to the Midwest has given way to a tacit recognition of that region in his later novels. Since his novels are often structured as quests to new worlds, the Midwest might qualify as a new, unexplored world. This essay analyzes Pynchon's portrayal of the Midwest, and, more specifically, Iowa, my home state. I argue that, beyond a literal, geographical place, Iowa, and the Midwest, function as a metaphor for a now unavailable imagined community.