Pynchon

[Anonymous No.15638302]

Can we get a Pynchon thread going?

I'm considering writing something on the boy - have read 49, am halfway through V, both of which I really enjoyed/am enjoying. However, since he's such a rare guy, pretty much anything I write on him will have to start and end with the language, right?

So - are there any authoritative biographical sources for Pynchon. AND, what is, in your opinion, the most interesting feature of his fiction, or person.

Thanks

[Anonymous No.15638425]

he's so fucking ugly is unbelieveable

[Anonymous No.15638583]

>>15638302
>I'm considering writing something on the boy
please don’t

[Anonymous No.15638614]

>>15638425
excuse me this is my waifu we're talking about

[Anonymous No.15638662]

>only read V. and Lot 49
I'm glad you're enjoying him OP, but you're really only scratching the surface. By all means write something, but keep writing as you read more because your thoughts on his books will undoubtedly change as you read more.

>So - are there any authoritative biographical sources for Pynchon.
Unfortunately we will most likely have to wait for Tom to kick the bucket before we have any biographical details that go beyond Wikipedia. One of Pynchon's old friends wrote quite a bit on him in Playboy, I believe the article is called "Who is Thomas Pynchon and Why Did he Run Off with My Wife?". Obviously that's only one guy's viewpoint so it's not exactly objective but it's the best we have for now. The same guy wrote more about him later on in a Pynchon mailing list iirc

The introduction to Slow Learner is the most extensive autobiographical piece we have from TP himself. You can read that in ~15 minutes.

[Anonymous No.15638684]

>>15638662
There was an unauthorized biography at my School's library, but I forget who wrote it

[Anonymous No.15639110]

>>15638662
awesome. Thank you for your reply.

I'm aware that I am indeed only really getting started (the ulyssean proportions of Rainbow loom large) and will of course, if I end up writing on him, have to do and think a whole lot more. It's more whether I even embark on the project, since art and artist are nigh on inseparable for me, and there's absolutely fuck all about this kid out there.

I'll check that intro.

[Anonymous No.15639126]

>>15638302
From him so far I have only read Mason & Dixon, but it was absolutely phenomenal, a 10/10. I'm thinking about going straight to Gravity's Rainbow next. Although, one anon did suggest I read Against The Day next, and then go through all his stuff in order of the internal chronology. I haven't decided. That's all I got

[Anonymous No.15639177]

>>15638302
Fuck that overrated goofy looking faggot

[Anonymous No.15639186]

>>15639126
Gravity's Rainbow is a lot different. M&D is a pretty straightforward plot in comparison.

[Anonymous No.15639192]

>>15638302
Pynchon is out there somewhere right now just living his life bros. Send him good vibes before he isn't anymore.

[Anonymous No.15639205]

>>15639186
plots in books are incidental

[Anonymous No.15639210]

>>15638302
How exciting! Im working my way through Against the Day right now, about half way done, and that will finish off his whole catalog for me. You have a ton of incredible reading ahead of you dude. Especially if you ever go for some rereads. My second read of V. may have made it my favorite book, waiting on y reread of GR to make that decision

[Anonymous No.15639212]

I hope he is having a good day.

[Anonymous No.15639218]

>>15639205
Lol

[Anonymous No.15639231]

>>15639218
believe me, read enough joyce and faulkner you're not gonna be much flummoxed over some linearity in events

[Anonymous No.15639248]

I’ve read all his books except for Bleeding Edge, including Slow Learner. My favorite was V., but I believe Gravity’s Rainbow is the most overrated of his by far, and I would leave it for last, after you have appreciated the rest of his work.

[Anonymous No.15639270]

>>15639231
You overgeneralized “books.” Plot is only incidental for some works, but even with those authors you presented, both language and plot are dependent of each other, not mutually exclusive. You’re a genuine pseud if you think otherwise.

[Anonymous No.15639282]

I just started reading Against the Day, and although the prose is just as incredible as everything else I’ve read by him, the more outright parody sections and encyclopedic descriptions of geology, electromagnetics, etc. (while still interesting) aren’t quite having the same effect that they did in Mason & Dixon or GR. Is there a character in AtD who has the same emotional depth as the titular boys in M&D or Slothrop? I sure hope so, but I’ll continue reading regardless. No author makes me want to write in English as much as Pinecone. I loved the section with the photographer and the ball lightning.

[Anonymous No.15639285]

>>15639270
ah, you're afraid of being a pseud. all becomes clear

[Anonymous No.15639288]

>>15639212
Me ttoo

[Anonymous No.15639299]

>>15639177
don't worry, hating pynchon is just a stepping stone on the path to being enlightened by him

[Anonymous No.15639304]

>>15639282
It’s been two years since I read it, but I believe it was the youngest of the three Traverse boys that had the most endearing character, but all three have distinctive personalities that contrast with each other. The parts at Göttingen where my least favorite.

[Anonymous No.15639353]

I'm going through Pynchon in chronological order. Got hooked by V., which I loved and still remember; enjoyed the cohesiveness of CL49; and am a little over halfway through Gravity's Rainbow.

I went into GR expecting a way more complex and polished V., and I feel that's what I got, but with something extra that I can't quite identify. Reading it is both thrilling and exhausting--at times it's so nebulous that I have to put it down and go do something else. But there's a lot more to think about in GR than there was in V., and I'm looking forward to analyzing it after I'm done.

>>15639282
I know this feel. Pynchon inspires me to write like no other.

[Anonymous No.15639367]

>>15639248
Why do you think Gravity's Rainbow is overrated?

[Anonymous No.15639409]

>>15639304
I think part of it is that the last two books that I’ve read during quarantine were Ulysses and Crime and Punishment, both of which have an almost laser-focused attention on the psyches of their main characters, and this makes it somewhat harder for me to get back into the Pynch style of “throw a ton of wacky oddballs at the wall and see who sticks” type of reading. Looking forward to reading more of the Traverse sections, though. Kit is interesting and I can’t wait for a Pynchon parody of Ivy-League bullshit at Yale.

[Anonymous No.15639470]

>>15639126
youre good to go on GR. no real reason to read against the day first unless of course you want to. mason and dixon is somewhat difficult, but GR is as difficult to read, if not more, and difficult in a very different way. even then if you had the chops to read mason, enjoy GR

[Anonymous No.15639489]

Nearing my second reread of Inherent Vice and gotta say I notice things I haven't noticed on my previous read, really digging it. That and listening to PiP podcast are both great.

[Anonymous No.15639526]

>>15638425
cover the bottom half of his face or really just his teeth, and he only looks dorky

[Anonymous No.15639604]

>>15638302
I'm really sorry I offended him or his son, Jackson. If there was a way to restore harmony, I think I would do it, but I don't think this is possible. I wasn't going to pull a DFW and outright deny Pynchon thricely at the Gethsemane Garden & Books Party, but I also can't shake the idea that Pynchon is more than one person or that the literary intrigues of Pynchon being an encoded club or cabal so far surpass the understanding that Pynchon is one man, poetic types are drawn to the balderdash, the greater hooplas, and so the Pynchonic lodges are born.

[Anonymous No.15639687]

>>15638662
For those who have read all of his books: how would you rank them? I’ve only read CoL49, GR, and IV

[Anonymous No.15639799]

>>15639489
inherent vice gains a lot of depth in conversation with his other work i think. sure it's a lark compared to his difficult books but it has a lot to say about the mechanisms of capitalism, the death of the counterculture, even the CIA heroin trade in southeast asia. the vegas/arrepiento section and the final scene are two of my favorite things he's ever written.

[Anonymous No.15639837]

my favorite pynchon scenes (no order)

> the banana breakfast
> riding in the car with nixon at the end of GR
> roger and jessica go to evensong mass
> mason and dixon's imaginary trip past the ohio river
> all the webb scenes in AtD
> the thing that attacks new york in AtD
> the final scene of inherent vice
> when oedipa is wandering around san francisco and seeing the posthorn everywhere
> esther's nosejob in V
> the africa section in V

i could go on for ages, how can anyone be such a good writer.

[Anonymous No.15640011]

>>15639687
from what I've read
GR > M&D >> CL49 > V. >> Vineland

Vineland isn't "bad" but it's not amazing as a whole. There are isolated passages that are not inferior to anything in GR.