User:Sideming
A partial newbie to Pynchon: I've read GR 3 times, Crying of Lot 49 twice, Vineland once, got halfway through MD (the mechanical duck found my off switch) and have never, can you believe it, never read V.
An economist by training, my current interests are Sanskrit/Jyotish and Proust. I also have an MDiv -- but do not practice.
Si_de_ming is my Chinese name from college, when I studied the language. Though I myself am not Chinese. For the exact reasons Pynchon mentions in AtD, my nickname was "Mr. Death." While the characters for "4" and "death" are NOT (despite what's said in AtD) the same, the pronunciation IS -- and my Si (not Spanish si)is yet another meaning.
The Japanese picked this up from their Chinese cultural infusion of Kanji.