At last capitulating to the growing digital hegemony, the hermitic, not-dead-yet novelist–whose beautifully explosive books (Gravity’s Rainbow, Mason and Dixon, The Crying of Lot 49) have left readers, writers, and critics in awe for the last half-century–is all-of-the-sudden fine with his books becoming e-books, perhaps begrudgingly. It’s been a battle with Kindle for some years, and apparently, the digital versions are priced higher than the prints.

One of his motivations, she said, was simple. “I think he wants to have more readers,” she said. “Every writer wants to have as many readers as they can possibly get. But I don’t think this will change his public profile, in terms of him being out there in public. In fact, I know it won’t.”

Going digital means more readership, naturally. But could Pynchon’s words on-screen signal wider adaptation? He’d probably hope not, but here’s to any developer crazy enough to make a game out of Gravity’s Rainbow–a book about nothing less than technology’s shattering impact on our society. Picture it: Showers of V2 rockets over hordes of frantic players. Sounds like your old dodge-the-falling-harmful-object trope. 

[via New York Times]  [A.V. Club]