#thomas pynchon
Book #57 of 2022:
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
As a satire, this 1966 novel about an apparent conspiracy surrounding an illegal alternate postal system is sporadically effective, with a handful of amusing developments and witty turns-of-phrase. As pretty much anything else, it’s not really what I’m looking for in a story. The punnily-named characters (Genghis Cohen, Manny di Presso, Emory Bortz, Mucho Maas, etc.) aren’t particularly defined beyond interchangeable punchline machines, the teased mysteries remain unsolved, and the discursive plot never quite justifies the sinister atmosphere. I don’t necessarily need answers in my fiction — I love S.andThe Starless Sea, and I’ve even come around to Lemony Snicket‘s brand of melancholic ambiguity — but hollow absurdism strictly for its own sake can often result in feelings of tedium and frustration, which has largely been my experience here.
I picked up this title as an introduction to author Thomas Pynchon, as it’s apparently shorter and more linear than his other works, and I can just about see the weird genius that has gained him a cult following. Yet I think at this point I can safely say that his talents are wasted — or should that be W.A.S.T.E.d — on me as a reader.
[Content warning for incest, rape, torture, gore, Nazi medical experimentation, desecration of human remains, drug abuse, homophobia including slurs, and racism including slurs.]
★★☆☆☆
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A few sentences on every Thomas Pynchon novel to date
A few sentences on every Thomas Pynchon novel to date
Today, 8 May 2022, is Thomas Ruggles Pynchon’s 85th birthday. Some of us nerds celebrate the work of one of the world’s greatest living authors with something called Pynchon in Public Day. In the past I’ve rounded up links to Pynchon stuff on Biblioklept and elsewhere. To celebrate, here are short riffs on Pynchon’s eight novels:
V. (1963)
I reread Pynchon’s first novel for the first time last…
The Mother Conspiracy (Gravity’s Rainbow)
The Mother Conspiracy (Gravity’s Rainbow)
Otto is earnestly explaining his views on the Mother Conspiracy. It’s not often a sympathetic girl will listen. The Mothers get together once a year, in secret, at these giant conventions, and exchange information. Recipes, games, key phrases to use on their children. “What did yours use to say when she wanted to make you feel guilty?”
“‘I’ve worked my fingers to the bone!’” sez the girl.
“Right!…
Film Hype #277.
When P.I. Doc Sportello’s ex-old lady shows up with a story about her current billionaire land developer boyfriend and a plot by his wife and her boyfriend to kidnap that billionaire and throw him in a looney bin… well, easy for her to say.
It’s the tail end of the ‘60s, paranoia is running the day and Doc knows that “love” is one of those words going around, like “trip” or “groovy,” that’s way too overused—except this one usually leads to trouble.
With a cast of characters that includes surfers, hustlers, dopers and rockers, a murderous loan shark, LAPD Detectives, a tenor sax player working undercover and a mysterious entity known as the Golden Fang, which may only be a tax dodge set up by some dentists…
Part surf noir, part psychedelic romp — all Thomas Pynchon.
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“Doc knew the likely reply, “I love him”, what else? With the unspoken footnote that the word these days was being way too overused.”
Inherent Vice, 2014
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Cinematography by Robert Elswit
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From the synopsis of Thomas Pynchon’s “Against the Day:”
[T]he 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.
papyromancyn. divination by folding paper
InGravity’s Rainbow, Pynchon poetically licensed this definition to mean the ability to prophesy through contemplating the way people roll reefers.
“From my expert employment of papyromancy while you rolled that spliff, Godfrey, there’s no way I’m stepping onto that aeroplane with you, no way at all! It’s like Final Destination all over again, again, again, and again.”
Inherent Vice (2014)
Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson, DoP: Robert Elswit
Who is an author you have a one-sided beef with and why?
The only issue with the Inherent Vice trailer is now we can’t look forward to the Inherent Vice trailer anymore.
-Hal-
