Thomas Pynchon

i meant kindred. and sloat fresno. and against the day going all annie proulx meets cormac mccarthy. fuck

must admit i'm not enjoying "inherent vice" all that much. in fact, haven't picked it up for about two weeks.

Dude. I think it only took me a couple of days all told, I loved it.

maybe i'll give it another shot tonight.

a black rush of hair streaming unruly as the smoke that marbles the flames of Perdition

liked INHERENT VICE, took finishing as an opportunity to pick up VINELAND finally, and i love it so far!

missed this bit of news late last year

http://www.filmjunk.com/2010/12/02/p-t-anderson-to-direct-inherent-vice-starring-robert-downey-jr/

maybe i'm nuts but what's up in wisco reminds me of against the day
http://www.slate.com/id/2286169/pagenum/all/#p2
or at least the simpsons, the koch bros scarsdale vibe's grandsons if not mr. burnses

I just bought Against the Day the other night, looking forward to digging in.

took me a while to get into. the deuce sloat lake fiasco hooked me

ATD is one of the greatest books i've ever read... and i've still got 300 pages to go

it picks up around then, believe it or not. cyprian turns out to be one of my favorite pynchon characters

i wish PT anderson was doing a six hour film of ATD instead

it's so fucking cinematic

ATD is one of the greatest books i've ever read...

i might go as far as saying it's my favorite tp by a long shot.

Robert Downey Jr. as lead in Inherent Vice is kind of perfect.

robert downey jr gains 40 pounds and plays slothrop, please

― cutty, Wednesday, September 17, 2008 11:29 AM (2 years ago)

Pynchon loves him some pigs:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef01538e4fe38c970b-600wi

"I was planning to skydive into the middle of these proceedings," joked Pynchon, who didn't even attend the National Book Awards when "Gravity's Rainbow" won in 1974. "Thank you for your teaching," he continued. "Good work and good vibes to everybody there."

Almost finished with V right now, and I'm enjoying it very much.

Did anyone else get this? I'm on the last 100 pages, and it seems like Pynchon is giving us the code to crack open the novel with. As in, now the past 400 pages are starting to make sense - Benny is like a fetish, an inanimate object, explains what SHROUD was saying, slaves, dance of death, all that good stuff. If that's the case, I wonder if it's reflected in Mondaugen's story where the German officer breaks Mondaugen's code and it reveals, from what I understand, a quote from Wittgenstein. I'm definitely interested in checking out what it means to see if/how it reflects on the novel's theme (if anyone else has done this, I'd love to hear about it).

Regardless, he's a great writer. Can't wait to read his other novels.

I am around 550 pages into Against The Day and it's my favorite one of his yet, just astonishing. V is the one I can't seem to get into so I'd say you have lots of great reading ahead of you.

just opened up lot 49 and its just really annoying

thrice is pretty good!
― city of gyros (http://i54.tinypic.com/11l4yvn.gif), Tuesday, May 9, 2006 12:51 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark

an essay on Watts from the 60s

http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_watts.html

lot 49 is not really annoying

yeah that's why I got it, because I thought I would be able to read a book by him that I wouldn't be bothered by. And I guess I don't really know how to say this well at this point, or maybe I am reading him wrong (ie. reading like 10 pages and throwing the book somewhere so it's not in my hands) but I really fuckin hate how he writes about race

it's weird, when it comes to books I'm not really that sensitive to how authors deal with race and I can overlook a lot, but for whatever reason, in pynchon's writing, I just get really disgusted by him almost immediately

i can understand that in regard to 'v,' which definitely has some problematic stuff in it. i don't remember any race stuff at all in 'lot 49,' tho.

my problem with pynchon is that i kind of hate his sense of humor, at least some of the time.

there's really no outward race stuff in lot 49 that warrants my rxn other than how he classifies his characters, I guess it's just something I notice much more in his writing than I do in that of other authors

Against the Day is fun -- the most diverting of his books since Lot 49.

whoops -- I meant Inherent Vice.

hahahaha

as reclusive writer dudes go he rates somewhere behind b. traven for me.

against the day diverts light

did anyone ever actually finish 'against the day'? i read the first 50 pages or so when it came out and even that was pushing it.

i read like three fucking hundred!

and still i failed

stansislaw lem's Memoirs Found in a Bathtub is one of those books that had a profound effect on me, and it is completely paranoid through and though, but there's this resignation in it that I guess gets me through it. That, or I just click with its humor more. Something about how Pynchon deals with paranoia and conspiracy doesn't do much for me for whatever reason. Or rather what it does it just makes me agitated. I understand that these are pretty personal (albeit pretty consistently lodged by others) criticisms aimed at a much-loved author, so sorry for taking an author's thread and being all "it sucks"

i don't remember anything that happened in against the day but i've read more than one rapturous essay that makes me want to try it again. and yet. time's winged chariot.

At my friend difficult listening hour's recommendation I got as far as pg. 450 in Mason and Dixon.

Or rather what it does is just makes me agitated xp

At my friend difficult listening hour's recommendation I got as far as pg. 450 in Mason and Dixon.

i was touched by this but it was a case for st. jude

i'm sort of put off by the style of 'mason and dixon,' i mean i can't even stand to read editions of fielding or sterne without modernized capitalization, et al.

i was stunned by how readable and beautiful mason and dixon was just on a technical level. i may have overrated it because of that. i read a lot of it out loud, actually, to myself, which i hardly ever do; lots of it is lovely.

Try Mason & Dixon, The Pinefox - it's terrific fun. It has an excellent duck super-robot - I don't see how anyone could resist that! The funniest bit is where Mason is asking a dog about the location of another dog - "Bark if he is to the North" etc. He states after three tries that since the dog has not barked, the dog is clearly stating that the other dog is to the East. Dixon asks him if he is entirely comfortable with his logic.

this kind of makes me want to give it a try, haha.

i'm not really a pynchon fan though. i've read everything except vineland and the last two and the only thing i would unreservedly recommend to anyone is the introduction to slow learner, which is one of the best writer-on-writing things i've ever read.

mason & dixon also has a scene where they get stoned w/ george washington

which, i mean, that is a pretty obvious joke and also ripped off from dazed and confused, but it's still fun

what's the gist of the writers-on-writing essay?

"Don't attempt long, difficult novels with Fielding-esque prose until your reputation as an eccentric recluse is firmly established."

my fav writer on writing thing is stevenson's essay on writing treasure island (My First Book) but I did like the intro to slow learner when I read it in a library

the robot duck subplot has a scene where the world's greatest chef is called in to deal with the robot duck, and when he modestly insists that he knows nothing about ducks, robespierre or whoever is like "but what of your canard du casserole? your canard au pamplemousse flambe?, and the chef blushes and says OH THOSE OLD CANARDS

book is weirdly like early woody allen