Doubling
Terrence Malick and Thomas Pynchon are two of the greatest living American artists. Both are in their eighties, though Pynchon is six years older.
Pynchon’s mother was Catholic, his father Episcopalian; the same is true of Malick.
Each graduated from an Ivy League university, Cornell for Pynchon and Harvard for Malick.
Each worked in various capacities for several years before settling on his life’s calling: in Pynchon’s case, writing novels; in Malick’s, making movies.
Pynchon published three novels, highly acclaimed by some but denounced as too difficult by others, the third of them set during the Second World War, and then disappeared from public sight for seventeen years. Malick made two movies, highly acclaimed by some but denounced as too difficult by others, and then disappeared from public sight for twenty years — before reappearing with a movie about the Second World War.
Pynchon’s war novel focused on the European theater; Malick’s war movie is set on Guadalcanal.
Later, Pynchon wrote an epic novel (Mason & Dixon) set in the eighteenth century; it was published when he was 60. Malick made an epic film (The New World) set in the seventeenth; it appeared when he was 62.
Pynchon has published eight novels and a collection of short stories; Malick has made nine feature films and one feature-length documentary.
Most of the work of each artist is set in the relatively recent past, but each has set works in something quite close to the contemporary moment — The Crying of Lot 49 and Bleeding Edge by Pynchon; To the Wonder, Knight of Cups, and Song to Song by Malick — and has also produced work that blends the contemporary and the recent past: Pynchon’s V. and Malick’s The Tree of Life.
Most of the work of each artist is focused on America and Americans, and considers — with genuine profundity in each case — the American quest for transcendent reality, what Pynchon calls the perception of “the far invisible.”
Pynchon explores this quest in a consistently comic way, Malick in a consistently earnest way.
Twelve years separated Pynchon’s Bleeding Edge (2013), which appeared when he was 76, and Shadow Ticket (2025); seven years have passed since Malick’s A Hidden Life (2019), which appeared when he was 76.
Neither man has given a proper interview in many decades, though Pynchon’s secrecy is considerably more comprehensive than Malick’s. Each clearly disdains publicity, and would prefer to face the world with his work, not his person. Neither will explain.
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For more information on the novelist, see the pynchon tag at The Homebound Symphony.