obvsly I'm not saying I'm right and your wrong, I'm just perplexed by it. I saw the film of Inherent Vice and found the fact that a character was called Japonica to be very funny.
― Gerneten-flüken cake (jed_), Monday, 14 September 2020 01:44 (three years ago) link
that’s another reason people enjoy his books: all the good names
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Monday, 14 September 2020 02:15 (three years ago) link
imo Against The Day is the one to start with, yeah it's the longest one but it's completely charming and considerably less cryptic than GR
I really need to read Vineland. Will try to score a copy at some stage
― imago, Monday, 14 September 2020 08:34 (three years ago) link
My dumb take on Vineland is that it sits on the leading edge of the contemporary vogue for female action heroes.
― Ruth Bae Ginsburg (Leee), Monday, 14 September 2020 17:42 (three years ago) link
I read Vineland 3 years ago and, despite it being a bit uneven, I liked it a lot. It's his most earnest of the ones that I've read (49, GR, Vineland, M&D, IV).
Mason & Dixon is still my favorite. It has such a huge heart.
― James Gandolfini the Grey (PBKR), Monday, 14 September 2020 18:22 (three years ago) link
Crying of Lot 49 was a total blast, I wanted to read it again as soon as I finished it.Vineland has been staring at me from the top of a stack, think I’ll get to it sooner than laterI bought the Mason and Dixon hardcover new for like 5 bucks in high school cuz it was one of those clearance items in the front of Barnes & Noble. Kinda figured it wasn’t well regarded because of this?
― brimstead, Monday, 14 September 2020 18:41 (three years ago) link
but obviously I was mistaken re:M&D
Me and a friend read M&D at the same time, not sure I would have gotten through it without the outside motivation but very glad I did, his best imo
― turn the jawhatthefuckever on (One Eye Open), Monday, 14 September 2020 18:48 (three years ago) link
I read The Crying of Lot 49 a couple of months ago, really liked it. I thought this was an amazing passage coming in 1965 (quoted it on Facebook): "When those kids sing about 'She loves you,' yeah, well, you know, she does, she's any number of people, all over the world, back through time, different colors, sizes, ages, shapes, distances from death, but she loves. And the 'you' is everybody. And herself."
― clemenza, Monday, 14 September 2020 18:56 (three years ago) link
pynchon reading meltzer in crawdaddy :)
― mark s, Monday, 14 September 2020 19:32 (three years ago) link
A blueprint for Meltzer, anyway (checked, and he started at Crawdaddy in '67).
― clemenza, Monday, 14 September 2020 19:37 (three years ago) link
yes i know
― mark s, Monday, 14 September 2020 19:40 (three years ago) link
but it does seem kinda meltzerish
maybe not mean enough
When I posted on FB, I compared it to Sheffield's Beatles book.
― clemenza, Monday, 14 September 2020 19:42 (three years ago) link
The band, the Paranoids, they were good too; reminded me of one of those fake bands you'd see at the time on The Flintstones or The Munsters.
― clemenza, Monday, 14 September 2020 19:44 (three years ago) link
Someone deceived me. Thomas Pynchon is alive and well. I apologize.— Louise Glück (@PoetLouiseGluck) February 16, 2021
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 16 February 2021 23:49 (three years ago) link
^^^this better still be so
― mark s, Friday, 30 September 2022 09:48 (one year ago) link
meanwhile checking in on my reread-it-all ratings:
i actually spoiled GR for myself by doing too mch back-reading (maybe also by rereading it too often): it's probably now slipped right down to my list least favourite still always V. (which is just too beat generation for me) i'd need to reread the last three for this to be definitive (AtD took me ten years -- with several interruptions and restarts) but i think my current order is M&RAtD VL BEIV --- need to reread this as the actual sequel to VL GRCL49V― mark s, Saturday, 19 November 2016 00:19 (five years ago) bookmarkflagline
least favourite still always V. (which is just too beat generation for me)
i'd need to reread the last three for this to be definitive (AtD took me ten years -- with several interruptions and restarts) but i think my current order is
M&RAtD VL BEIV --- need to reread this as the actual sequel to VL GRCL49V
― mark s, Saturday, 19 November 2016 00:19 (five years ago) bookmarkflagline
AtD: currently my favourite, tho this always kinda just means the one i read most recently M&D: i think his best and deepest -- i love that it's abt america just before the revolution (he must have just shouted w/glee when he discovered in pre-novel research that one of M&D stayed in the UK and one emigrated) (tracer tells me THE SOTWEED FACTOR is also abt america just before the revolution, so i guess i shd read that VL: very fond of this, it's the one where he learnt to do affection between characters and i prefer him like that -- tho it leaves brock vond a weak reed (like he forgot how to do villains) BE: getting a raw deal here -- his "novels of times as they are now" (this, VL and CoL49) are always full of alert observation, and i think there's tons here that's (a) accurate and (b) not in any other novels -- need to reread, maybe disenchantment will kick in (ie my allergy to cyberpunk -- as i was reading it i was thinking "i much prefer this to gibson") IV: re the film (which i liked) even quite smart ppl seem to go with "who needs another big lebowski?" -- well i hate big lebowski, who needs even one, IV isn't a bit like it… book is lowish mainly bcz i'm a tiny bit allergic to marlowism GR: putting it here looks challopsy -- and i think you can find me raving abt it on early ilx (s.clover will remember) -- but i honestly read this once too many times (8 or 9) and just have no will to, again; this surprised me too (it has great set-pieces of course) CoL49: superb as a second novel by a young writer, several great set-pieces and startling ideas*, like VL and BE a "novel of times as they are now" (fun to read alongside didion) but his inexperience sentence-making shows now and then, several of the characters don't really work (for example the paranoids), and i always felt tripped up and let down by its brevity V.: a handful of scenes i still remember from reading it first and only time c.1981, but i also have an allergy (much larger this time) to beatnikery and this i remember as rancid with it >:( never tried to reread it, i know i probably should SL: bleh, there's really nothing much here (his intro essay is quite funny) *the man's face on the stamp transfixed with fright and horror― mark s, Wednesday, 12 April 2017 22:49 (five years ago) bookmarkflaglink
*the man's face on the stamp transfixed with fright and horror
― mark s, Wednesday, 12 April 2017 22:49 (five years ago) bookmarkflaglink
not much to add: i did actually start a (tenth?) GR reread a couple years back and this time beached but i think that was mainly pandemic depression: i hardly managed to read anything in 2020 or 2021 -- my impression (i was trying a superclose read for once where i actually decode everyt sentence instead of just skipping it) is that i'm not as smart as i was when i first read it or else just less inclined to believe my own bullshit lol. i think -- since ppl were discussing it on the novels-unfinished thread -- that despite being short CL49 is one of the tougher TPs, partly bcz his attitude to the characters is at best enigmatic (if he loves em he's not showing it). maybe BB is overranked here? -- but i was unpersuaded by much of the critical disappointment (dudes he always gets that). anyway i shd reread; and AtD also of course
― mark s, Friday, 30 September 2022 09:57 (one year ago) link
Glad to see some Bleeding Edge appreciation on here.
― I am using your worlds, Friday, 30 September 2022 10:09 (one year ago) link
I have less than 50 pages to go in AtD. Love some parts (beginning, Colorado sections) and feel blessed to have 1100 pages of Pynchon, but it is overstuffed. M&D remains #1 for me.
― i need to put some clouds behind the reaper (PBKR), Friday, 30 September 2022 12:51 (one year ago) link
not! long! enough!
(it took me ten years to finish)
― mark s, Friday, 30 September 2022 13:17 (one year ago) link
did we know that his full name is "Thomas Ruggles Pynchon"
― Critique of the Goth Programme (Neil S), Friday, 30 September 2022 13:33 (one year ago) link
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr.
― mizzell, Friday, 30 September 2022 13:57 (one year ago) link
👍
― Critique of the Goth Programme (Neil S), Friday, 30 September 2022 14:04 (one year ago) link
Surprised to see the low rating for Slow Learner - I think The Secret Integration is one of the loveliest things he ever wrote.
Shamefully as a dedicated TRP fanboi I am still not even halfway through Against the Day ;_;
― Piedie Gimbel, Friday, 30 September 2022 14:27 (one year ago) link
I had seen his full name before because I have read his wikipedia page many times, but I don't think I ever followed the link to his ancestor William Pynchon, and saw the Pynchon coat of armshttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/45/COA_William_Pynchon.svg/800px-COA_William_Pynchon.svg.png
― mizzell, Friday, 30 September 2022 14:30 (one year ago) link
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EoGaSWzWMAYFCK0.jpg
― mark s, Friday, 30 September 2022 14:47 (one year ago) link
This would be a fun Nobel Prize surprise.
― The self-titled drags (Eazy), Friday, 30 September 2022 15:57 (one year ago) link
also, it is so so so West Coast, I love that about it― sleeve
― sleeve
― dow, Friday, 30 September 2022 17:10 (one year ago) link
Maximalism’s Big Daddy. His novels, in which entropy reigns supreme, are dense and complex and uncover the murky and incongruous mechanics of life, but without providing a single answer. Authors like him only come once in a lifetime. Award the 2022 Nobel Prize to Thomas Pynchon. pic.twitter.com/2BVzmoNJTA— Luis Panini (@TheLuisPanini) October 3, 2022
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 3 October 2022 22:03 (one year ago) link
Hey take it over to the Great Real Names thread, M. Panini!
― Misirlou Sunset (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 October 2022 22:04 (one year ago) link
A game on this site was trying to find an author who was as wild as Pynchon. I really liked this piece of Laiseca, the novel hasn't been translated but it does sound wild.
https://www.asymptotejournal.com/special-feature/manuel-antonio-castro-cordoba-on-laiseca/
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 18 November 2022 16:41 (one year ago) link
I read Mason & Dixon this year and it was lovely
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Friday, 18 November 2022 17:30 (one year ago) link
Yah!
xyzzzz, thanks for that link. The description of Laiseca sounds so much like Pynchon! Very interesting and now I want to read it but don't speak or read spanish :(
― The Bankruptcy of the Planet of the Apes (PBKR), Friday, 18 November 2022 18:14 (one year ago) link
Quite a few ambitious works are being translated btw. This is out Match next year.
https://dalkeyarchive.store/products/the-garden-of-seven-twilights
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 20 November 2022 16:57 (one year ago) link
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2022-12-14/the-huntington-library-acquires-papers-of-thomas-pynchon
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 14 December 2022 23:30 (one year ago) link
Huntington Library is an awesome place and perfect for Pynchon. Really interesting that the archive will include his research materials - could be illuminating.
― The Bankruptcy of the Planet of the Apes (PBKR), Thursday, 15 December 2022 01:13 (one year ago) link
love this. huntington really is the right place.
― poster of sparks (rogermexico.), Thursday, 15 December 2022 20:35 (one year ago) link
A few have talked about Solenoid as the highly ambitious work on a Pynchonesque scale. Eng translation has been issued. I will have a go at it.
Mircea Cărtărescu’s “brilliant, clear and disquieting prose….fills you quite immediately with a desire to explore a world that seems to be collapsing”Read @SaraheKornfeld’s full review of “Solenoid” (tr. Sean Cotter) here:https://t.co/crAUuYGybV@DeepVellum #LARreviews pic.twitter.com/Bg47GMSW7L— Los Angeles Review (@LAReview) December 14, 2022
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 16 December 2022 12:02 (one year ago) link
Lovely news to see indeed -- Pynchon and Butler, what a combo alone!
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 17 December 2022 00:06 (one year ago) link
The best novel ever written by an ex-CIA operative (unless Pynchon is ex-CIA, which he might be).— Elvis Buñuelo (@Mr_Considerate) September 22, 2023
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 22 September 2023 13:42 (seven months ago) link
If he was, it surely only served to sharpen his criticism of historical and contemporary US foreign policy
― imago, Friday, 22 September 2023 13:46 (seven months ago) link
DeLillo has more big spook energy.
― Piedie Gimbel, Friday, 22 September 2023 14:13 (seven months ago) link
Libra presumably an expose rather than a speculation
― imago, Friday, 22 September 2023 14:15 (seven months ago) link
whenever this thread is revived I worry that he's dead. how old is he by now anyway?
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Friday, 22 September 2023 16:17 (seven months ago) link
86 I think
― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Friday, 22 September 2023 16:18 (seven months ago) link
there's a signed edition of Mason and Dixon on Ebay for $24k.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/274765041981?hash=item3ff945d13d:g:B7oAAOSwQWBdfQkd&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4NQNcS8Q0SfQmzO0180rdkEA3JX4lSWkw5TA7yzzANIQk8pUsHcXQs8FzKvlDWMLPHJePYglAPUC093VvGVN68JYxmebKgweiZ8Nbcw5r5XNmSffetYZxis45gH8G%2FfrPxRsxto3SCtzlSp1kA%2FFtpyf5Q0241JFXIjigK74en2DIdcCmj2hJ0zoRKRw6G%2Fvc7pfVR3LWO0QInO5m7tckigFGMBRoe2cUdDELt0miJWdXDFcNtpPjIsrD5S4PqlPUjKYygYfT%2B1sHP0efqct3wR4Yr3Y5amrbKlkoeg3pOqf%7Ctkp%3ABlBMUOq9tu3XYg
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Friday, 22 September 2023 21:41 (seven months ago) link
I’ve seen signed Salinger and Pynchon titles go for between $10k and $30k. You can see some more on Abebooks
― beamish13, Friday, 22 September 2023 21:49 (seven months ago) link
He's actually been dead since 1974. The books written by "Thomas Pynchon" after that point have actually been written by Irwin Corey.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Friday, 22 September 2023 21:51 (seven months ago) link