Do you realize that this is the first time I will be able to anticpate NEW PYNCHON

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Book Description
Spanning the period between the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and the years just after World War I, this novel moves from the labor troubles in Colorado to turn-of-the-century New York, to London and Gottingen, Venice and Vienna, the Balkans, Central Asia, Siberia at the time of the mysterious Tunguska Event, Mexico during the Revolution, postwar Paris, silent-era Hollywood, and one or two places not strictly speaking on the map at all.

With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred.

The sizable cast of characters includes anarchists, balloonists, gamblers, corporate tycoons, drug enthusiasts, innocents and decadents, mathematicians, mad scientists, shamans, psychics, and stage magicians, spies, detectives, adventuresses, and hired guns. There are cameo appearances by Nikola Tesla, Bela Lugosi, and Groucho Marx.

As an era of certainty comes crashing down around their ears and an unpredictable future commences, these folks are mostly just trying to pursue their lives. Sometimes they manage to catch up; sometimes it's their lives that pursue them.

Meanwhile, the author is up to his usual business. Characters stop what they're doing to sing what are for the most part stupid songs. Strange sexual practices take place. Obscure languages are spoken, not always idiomatically. Contrary-to-the-fact occurrences occur. If it is not the world, it is what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two. According to some, this is one of the main purposes of fiction.

Let the reader decide, let the reader beware. Good luck.

--Thomas Pynchon

About the Author
Thomas Pynchon is the author of V., The Crying of Lot 49, Gravity's Rainbow, Slow Learner, a collection of short stories, Vineland and, most recently, Mason and Dixon. He received the National Book Award for Gravity's Rainbow in 1974.

― c('°c) (Leee), Sunday, 16 July 2006 04:28 (nineteen years ago)

Hmm, I guess you're some years younger than me! (This isn't being dismissive or anything; I just remember anticipating both Vineland and Mason and Dixon.) Anyway, this sounds like the logical bridge between M&D and Gravity's and therefore will result in the Greatest Actual Trilogy Ever outside of the Greek plays. (And as opposed to LOTR, which isn't *really* a trilogy, after all.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 16 July 2006 04:37 (nineteen years ago)

i am, of course, thrilled to hear this. except that he totally ripped off my very own novel idea: Siberia at the time of the mysterious Tunguska Event,

OH WELL

― gbx (skowly), Sunday, 16 July 2006 04:42 (nineteen years ago)

haha yeah the thread title made me feel ancient too. just added to my wishlist - totally ready for xmas.

― j blount (papa la bas), Sunday, 16 July 2006 04:43 (nineteen years ago)

A return to form then? I think I feel a special little tingle. Especially if there are ancestral Tchitcherines...

There would have to be ancestral Tchitcherines...

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Sunday, 16 July 2006 05:00 (nineteen years ago)

PS - "anticpate" indeed! hoho...

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Sunday, 16 July 2006 05:01 (nineteen years ago)

wow this is awesome news.

― hstencil (hstencil), Sunday, 16 July 2006 05:02 (nineteen years ago)

i was "there" for M&D but a little too young for vineland

― celebrity mole: hawaii (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 16 July 2006 05:02 (nineteen years ago)

i think vineland hype was what got me interested in the first place, mason & dixon was definitely the first i got to anticipate and have any inkling of what i was anticipating or why. totally rereading at the very least v., gravity's rainbow, and m&d by thanxgiving. noise board should maybe do some oprah book club thing on this, seward can mod.

― j blount (papa la bas), Sunday, 16 July 2006 05:08 (nineteen years ago)

hstencil in anticpating NEW PYNCHON shocker!

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Sunday, 16 July 2006 05:08 (nineteen years ago)

(sez rogermexico)

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Sunday, 16 July 2006 05:09 (nineteen years ago)

wow i've never anticipated a book before! can't wait!

― ryan (ryan), Sunday, 16 July 2006 05:41 (nineteen years ago)

this looks awesome!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 16 July 2006 05:55 (nineteen years ago)

looks pretty sweet - i wonder what the title's gonna be?

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 16 July 2006 06:02 (nineteen years ago)

Was that quote from Amazon? Because they seem to have pulled it. Is there independent confirmation of this?

― The Yellow Kid (The Yellow Kid), Sunday, 16 July 2006 06:23 (nineteen years ago)

Wow, I guess there is, I just found an article from the LA Times back in June.

― The Yellow Kid (The Yellow Kid), Sunday, 16 July 2006 06:52 (nineteen years ago)

992 pages!!

― Ward Fowler (Ward Fowler), Sunday, 16 July 2006 10:42 (nineteen years ago)

Hell yeah. Pynchon and George RR Martin? I'm going to develop serious spinal deformities trying to carry all this shit around.

― adam (adam), Sunday, 16 July 2006 11:07 (nineteen years ago)

noise board should maybe do some oprah book club thing on this, seward can mod.

! Thread of threads right there, if you do all three.

"DAEREST SLOCUM"

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 16 July 2006 11:13 (nineteen years ago)

('Slocum'? 'SLOTHROPE.' I just woke up. 'Slocum' still works though.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 16 July 2006 11:14 (nineteen years ago)

!!! my first anticipation, too. v v exciting...

― toby (tsg20), Sunday, 16 July 2006 11:36 (nineteen years ago)

I'm assuming I'll have to get an American copy if I want it this year. Which I do.

― More Tongue Feldman (noodle vague), Sunday, 16 July 2006 11:39 (nineteen years ago)

And I misspelled Slothrop too! Clearly I just need more sleep.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 16 July 2006 11:45 (nineteen years ago)

It would be awesome if he kept the title Untitled Thomas Pynchon.

― I will commence to drop a knowledge bomb. (Rock Hardy), Sunday, 16 July 2006 13:14 (nineteen years ago)

hey can I get some advice: I've only read Lot 49, and gave up on Gravity's Rainbow; Mason & Dixon interests me the most as far as I can tell but can I just go straight to reading that or what other novel (not GR at this stage) by him would you recommend I try now? and yes I accept lots of it will go over my head so please don't say to just give up!

― spectra (spectra), Sunday, 16 July 2006 13:43 (nineteen years ago)

I'd say V comes next.

― 100% CHAMPS with a Yes! Attitude. (Austin, Still), Sunday, 16 July 2006 14:26 (nineteen years ago)

I'm still trying to figure out if M&D was as bad as I think it is, or if my tastes just changed (huge fan of V and Gravity's Rainbow).

― timmy tannin (pompous), Sunday, 16 July 2006 14:48 (nineteen years ago)

M&D is brilliant. Why did you not like?

― More Tongue Feldman (noodle vague), Sunday, 16 July 2006 14:49 (nineteen years ago)

it's not exactly fresh in my mind, but the schticky anachronisms just fell really flat in my opinion. that said, i should give it another try one day, perhaps i was not in the right mood when i tackled it. I devoured his other works, so i'm not sure why M&D felt like such a chore.

― timmy tannin (pompous), Sunday, 16 July 2006 15:10 (nineteen years ago)

I have never anticipated a new book like I am anticipating this. Very, very exciting.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Sunday, 16 July 2006 15:13 (nineteen years ago)

i'm not sure why M&D felt like such a chore

Because one of the risks of adopting the picaresque is ending up with a string of vignettes but no plot, no underlying mystery to be solved (e.g. who or what is V, Tristero, what's up with Slothrop's cock), no antagonist to be defeated, no outcome we desire for the characters. Just a series of events. This happens, then this happens, and it's all very amusing but not particularly involving.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Sunday, 16 July 2006 15:17 (nineteen years ago)

I can see why some of the anachronisms might feel gimmicky, but I think the prose is dense enough that it's often not immediately clear that they are anachronisms. And there's a tension between the late 20th century and the middle 18th: I don't think he's only drawing connections between them, tho I think a lot of those connections are valid, but he's using the anachronisms to make the 18th century more alien, or to suggest that what we've inherited from the Age of Reason is mostly Not Reason.

And a faux 18th century novel kind of needs to be Picaresque, I think, but I think there's plenty of underlying mystery and that whole Realist cohesive novel schtick needs putting to bed anyway.

― More Tongue Feldman (noodle vague), Sunday, 16 July 2006 15:20 (nineteen years ago)

that whole Realist cohesive novel schtick needs putting to bed anyway

But it's been put to bed so many times! I don't care about cohesion (coherence?) in The Novel, but Pynchon's demonstrably weaker in the absence of a reason to turn the page.

And while one of the pleasures of Pynchon is the way he toys with and challenges and exposes our expectations of nnarrative, he can only do so as a novelist who relies on those expectations quite heavily for many of his effects. It's not as though we're talking about Robbe-Grillet here...

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Sunday, 16 July 2006 15:34 (nineteen years ago)

So short version: maybe, but Pynchon ain't the one to do it.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Sunday, 16 July 2006 15:35 (nineteen years ago)

Gulliver's Travels and Ulysses might be better reference points. And by the same logic neither of them give you a reason to turn the page.

― More Tongue Feldman (noodle vague), Sunday, 16 July 2006 15:36 (nineteen years ago)

mason and dixon has more plot than his other novels, though

― tom west (thomp), Sunday, 16 July 2006 15:52 (nineteen years ago)

Couldn't disagree more about Ulysses or Gulliver - both Dedalus and Bloom have crises to resolve, and Gulliver has to get home.

So they're both The Odyssey...

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Sunday, 16 July 2006 16:53 (nineteen years ago)

I am so up for book clubbing.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Sunday, 16 July 2006 17:10 (nineteen years ago)

I don't think Gulliver is most interestingly read as the story of a bloke trying to get home. And he fairly explicitly doesn't want to be at home, especially by Volume 4. I've never really been convinced that Bloom resolves much at the end of Ulysses either.

But the parallels with M&D for me are more to do with the fact that all three are satirical books that have more going on than just satire, and that they share a high degree of preoccupation with the texture of prose, and that they're very funny shaggy dog stories.

― More Tongue Feldman (noodle vague), Sunday, 16 July 2006 17:19 (nineteen years ago)

OKAY, I'm excited now. (This is #3 for me.) The book description did it.

Who saw the Simpsons episode with Thomas Pynchon voicing himself? Wearing a paper bag over his head, with a huge flashing THOMAS PYNCHON'S HOUSE marquee in his front yard?

― xero (xero), Sunday, 16 July 2006 17:55 (nineteen years ago)

The first Pynchon I read was Gravity's Rainbow in about 2000, so the only TRP-related entity that has come out in the duration is his 1984 intro.

― c('°c) (Leee), Sunday, 16 July 2006 18:07 (nineteen years ago)

A-a-and I don't know from what source the book description came, though I know it's not from the Amazon link. However, I have my pointsman looking into the source right now.

― c('°c) (Leee), Sunday, 16 July 2006 18:13 (nineteen years ago)

I don't think Gulliver is most interestingly read as the story of a bloke trying to get home. And he fairly explicitly doesn't want to be at home, especially by Volume 4. I've never really been convinced that Bloom resolves much at the end of Ulysses either.

Agreed on both counts, actually. I'm being perverse more than a bit reductive. But note that whether or not the crisis is resolved is most definitely not a requirement. cf. The Crying Of Lot 49, Gravity's Rainbow...

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Sunday, 16 July 2006 18:37 (nineteen years ago)

I was there.

― M. V. (M.V.), Sunday, 16 July 2006 21:03 (nineteen years ago)

unbelievable: they do not have a copy of M&D in my university library.

― gbx (skowly), Sunday, 16 July 2006 22:13 (nineteen years ago)

Rogermexico's 'reason to turn the page' theory is curious, mostly because anyone who's read more than one Pynchon novel should well know that such a resolution isn't going to be forthcoming.

Surely the 'page-turner' in Mason & Dixon is why the hell they are out there drawing this line in the first place? Admittedly, this isn't as strong as Tristero/Slothrop's cock but by my third Pynchon novel I'd kind of stopped bothering about that side of things.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Sunday, 16 July 2006 22:46 (nineteen years ago)

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/1676/pynchonsimpsons001xw6.jpg

― a.b. (alanbanana), Monday, 17 July 2006 00:10 (nineteen years ago)

M&D is his best (given that I'm a big fan of the 18th--see also Barth's Sot-Weed Factor, the only good thing that dude ever did). The one I didn't like is Vineland. Can someone put it into context? When I read it (ca 1999) it seemed like a sloppy, pointless mess.

― adam (adam), Monday, 17 July 2006 00:27 (nineteen years ago)

i heart vineland most of all these days -- m&d i somehow suspect i'm still not old enough for. pynchon is, most of all, a generous author, and vineland is horribly kind, among other things, plus it seems the most openly reflective about pynchon's modern grounding in themes about the implosion of counterculture, need to settle one's own debts with living in Society (big S intended) etc. also the more one knows of california, the funnier it is.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 17 July 2006 01:17 (nineteen years ago)

sterling otm

― j blount (papa la bas), Monday, 17 July 2006 01:32 (nineteen years ago)

Skipping 87 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

^^^true, and I saw this as a good thing. I think I actually slowed down my reading of it because I was enjoying it so much.

― Any cook should be able to run the country. (Ned Trifle II), Friday, 10 October 2008 11:45 (seventeen years ago)

M & D that is.

― Any cook should be able to run the country. (Ned Trifle II), Friday, 10 October 2008 11:45 (seventeen years ago)

I think I've lost my half-completed Mason and Dixon. It's my dad's favourite Pynchon. He's always on about it.

― Mooncalf (Raw Patrick), Friday, 10 October 2008 11:54 (seventeen years ago)

one month passes...

EXCERPT!

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/authors/paperback_fever_excerpt_from_thomas_pynchons_upcoming_private_detective_novel_101775.asp?c=rss

― UEK - Big Tempin' (Oilyrags), Tuesday, 25 November 2008 19:41 (seventeen years ago)

Also title: Inherent Vice.

Beats the hell out of Solacious Quanti or Crystalline Skull Kingdoms, if'n ya ask me.

― UEK - Big Tempin' (Oilyrags), Tuesday, 25 November 2008 19:42 (seventeen years ago)

ha! this should be a hoot.

― ryan, Tuesday, 25 November 2008 19:46 (seventeen years ago)

"Shasta"? SERIOUSLY? YES.

― cutty, Tuesday, 25 November 2008 19:47 (seventeen years ago)

is this the shortest span he's ever had between two books?

― cutty, Tuesday, 25 November 2008 19:50 (seventeen years ago)

Oilyrags I thank U

― I am using your worlds, Tuesday, 25 November 2008 19:53 (seventeen years ago)

No prob. My even more obsessive than me pal Levide put me up on it.

― UEK - Big Tempin' (Oilyrags), Tuesday, 25 November 2008 19:54 (seventeen years ago)

Inherent Vice! stoked.

― I am using your worlds, Tuesday, 25 November 2008 19:56 (seventeen years ago)

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/original/pynchonvice_thumb.png

― I am using your worlds, Tuesday, 25 November 2008 19:58 (seventeen years ago)

steve shasta, wakeboarding detective

― some know what you dude last summer (Jordan), Tuesday, 25 November 2008 19:59 (seventeen years ago)

seven months pass...

I keep forgetting this comes out next month. Anyway, this comes out next month.

http://giavasan.diludovico.it/archivi/public_html/giavasan/archivi/images4/inherent-vice_cover-final.jpg

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 23 July 2009 14:39 (sixteen years ago)

I like the Pulp Pynchon cover for some reason. So is this supposed to feature the same surfer dudes that appeared in Crying of Lot 49?

― collardio gelatinous, Thursday, 23 July 2009 14:53 (sixteen years ago)

The car is totally Ghostbusters.

― Desmond Decca Aitkenhead (Matt DC), Thursday, 23 July 2009 14:54 (sixteen years ago)

review from the observer - http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jul/26/pynchon-churchwell-inherent-vice

― just sayin, Sunday, 26 July 2009 13:22 (sixteen years ago)

Very excited indeed after reading that.

― Desmond Decca Aitkenhead (Matt DC), Sunday, 26 July 2009 13:35 (sixteen years ago)

a friend of mine is v much hoping mcclintic sphere is in it

― thomp, Sunday, 26 July 2009 15:33 (sixteen years ago)

am worried this will be too much like vineland (my least fav pynchon)

― just sayin, Sunday, 26 July 2009 16:38 (sixteen years ago)

thomp, did u read against the day

― a narwhal done gored my sister nell (cankles), Sunday, 26 July 2009 16:41 (sixteen years ago)

BTW today's Sally Forth begins "A screaming comes across the sky."

― clotpoll, Monday, 27 July 2009 03:33 (sixteen years ago)

v much...

am worried this will be too much like vineland (my least fav pynchon)

boo fuckin' hoo, because yeah it would be a terrible thing if the american-speaking world got another book as sharp as vineland

― all yoga attacks are fire based (rogermexico.), Monday, 27 July 2009 06:21 (sixteen years ago)

i dont know i just found it too tom robbins-y

― just sayin, Monday, 27 July 2009 08:18 (sixteen years ago)

Love the cover.

― ╓abies, Monday, 27 July 2009 12:35 (sixteen years ago)

Is the title a DFW reference? Infinite Jest / Inherent Vice. Same number of letters, syllables, and sound.

― calstars, Wednesday, 29 July 2009 16:32 (sixteen years ago)

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries." Churchill

― I am using your worlds, Wednesday, 29 July 2009 16:38 (sixteen years ago)

^^ plus also "infinite jest" isn't exactly DFW coinage

― all yoga attacks are fire based (rogermexico.), Wednesday, 29 July 2009 17:07 (sixteen years ago)

i dont know i just found it too tom robbins-y

this makes me think maybe I should be giving Tom Robbins another try...

― all yoga attacks are fire based (rogermexico.), Wednesday, 29 July 2009 17:08 (sixteen years ago)

LA Times review up.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 31 July 2009 20:21 (sixteen years ago)

weird, an ex-prof of mine just released a totally unrelated, nonfiction book with the same title!

― john q. lazzarus (donna rouge), Friday, 31 July 2009 20:35 (sixteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjWKPdDk0_U

― cutty, Wednesday, 5 August 2009 14:28 (sixteen years ago)

is that the voice of jeff bridges?

― where we turn sweet dreams into remarkable realities (just1n3), Wednesday, 5 August 2009 15:47 (sixteen years ago)

it's thomas pynchon

― cutty, Wednesday, 5 August 2009 15:55 (sixteen years ago)

six years pass...

might be some more new pynchon

http://www.vice.com/read/thomas-pynchon-might-have-published-a-new-novel-about-community-colleges-under-a-pseudonym-vgtrn-059

― reggie (qualmsley), Thursday, 10 September 2015 20:28 (ten years ago)

it's not. but someone has a clever publicist.

― Iago Galdston, Thursday, 10 September 2015 20:47 (ten years ago)

What makes you so sure?

― Acting Crazy (Instrumental) (jed_), Thursday, 10 September 2015 21:40 (ten years ago)

maybe he's Thomas Pynchon

― Number None, Thursday, 10 September 2015 21:57 (ten years ago)

Iago Ruggles Galdston.

― :wq (Leee), Thursday, 10 September 2015 22:01 (ten years ago)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanda_Tinasky#Thomas_Pynchon

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Thursday, 10 September 2015 22:01 (ten years ago)

How far I've fallen, btw: I haven't read Bleeding Edge yet. :( (Did I miss out on anything?)

― :wq (Leee), Thursday, 10 September 2015 22:11 (ten years ago)

What makes you so sure?
--Acting Crazy (Instrumental) (jed_)

Friend at Penguin

― Iago Galdston, Thursday, 10 September 2015 22:30 (ten years ago)

Ok but unless your friend definitely knew who Pearson is, which they may, it doesn't necessarily follow that who they think he is is not P.

― Acting Crazy (Instrumental) (jed_), Thursday, 10 September 2015 22:34 (ten years ago)

I don't have much investment in this tbh but P. has successfully hidden from public life for 50 years so could easily do this.

― Acting Crazy (Instrumental) (jed_), Thursday, 10 September 2015 22:36 (ten years ago)

Different q and tangent - does Pynchon have an editor who performs a role similar to other author's editors?

― Acting Crazy (Instrumental) (jed_), Thursday, 10 September 2015 22:37 (ten years ago)

She won't say. They can't talk about him--drives me nuts. But she would say that the Cow Country thing isn't him. He had a sort of editor in the 60s, can't remember her name. I think she helped type too.

Did you read those quotes from the book? Yikes, that ain't Pynchon. That list of names was a very poor approximation.

― Iago Galdston, Friday, 11 September 2015 01:44 (ten years ago)

Also, what a dumb hoax for him to do--give him a little credit

― Iago Galdston, Friday, 11 September 2015 01:45 (ten years ago)

Faith Sale was his editor. His best friend Kirkpatrick Sale's wife. Sale is quite a character.

― Iago Galdston, Friday, 11 September 2015 01:47 (ten years ago)

How far I've fallen, btw: I haven't read Bleeding Edge yet. :( (Did I miss out on anything?)

― :wq (Leee), Thursday, 10 September 2015 22:11 (Yesterday) Permalink

Nah.

― RAP GAME SHANI DAVIS (Raymond Cummings), Friday, 11 September 2015 01:58 (ten years ago)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/12/books/pynchon-intrigue-abounds-over-cow-country.html?_r=0

― Iago Galdston, Saturday, 12 September 2015 21:14 (ten years ago)

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