Is 'She Hangs Over The Western Wall' supposed to be a Stencil impersonations chapter? It's set only a little after the last one and begins with a section about Stencil but I find it weird that he would impersonate someone like Victoria, in 'In which Stencil, a quick-change artist does eight impersonations' he only impersonated people tangential to the main story.
I think at that point the line has been narratively blurred if there ever was one between what happens and what is being reconstructed &/or hallucinated by Stencil. Or at least the chapter veers off from impersonations to more distant stencilization
I never understood the part about the "impersonations". Isn't it just Stencil gathering information and reconstructing stories?
>>7645606
in "In which Stencil, a quick-change artist does eight impersonations" he is imagining himself as the primary character in each chapter. He calls himself Stencil in the third person because he wants his identity to be interchangeable with Maxwell Rowley-Bugge or Yusef. One way in which Stencil shines through in all his impersonations in that chapter is that nearly all of the people he impersonates have an infatuation with Victoria - seems more likely that Stencil is projecting his infatuation rather than literally everyone who meets Victoria falling in love with her.
I'm not OP, but I'm reading this book right now. I just got to 'Mondaugen's story.' Shit, I was not expecting this. Pynchon's kept it more or less lighthearted up until now (at least an adventurous feeling) and then we get this shit about the horrors of colonialism. Especially the part about Sarah
>>7645673
>seems more likely that Stencil is projecting his infatuation rather than literally everyone who meets Victoria falling in love with her.
An interesting theory, but I have to disagree, I think V's seductiveness is an important part of the character/symbol
>>7647629
I read Mondaugen's story in a single sitting but it felt like an eternity and fatigued the hell out of me. I actually put down the book for 2 weeks afterwards before finishing it. Just left me feeling totally burned out and unable to enjoy the Sick Crew chapters. It's some of Pynchon's best writing, but I just almost hate to read it.
>>7647669
>Just left me feeling totally burned out and unable to enjoy the Sick Crew chapters. It's some of Pynchon's best writing, but I just almost hate to read it.
This right here. Mondaugen's Story, along with Confessions of Fausto Majistral are easily my favorite chapters in any Pynchon book l've read so far, but they're very hard to get through. Mondaugen's Story was sickening at times.
>>7648486
kind of like the Pokler part of Gravity's Rainbow
>>7648493
Haven't read GR yet, sadly. It's too intimidating.
what is with Thomas Pynchon and 4chan?
>>7648509
It took me a while to really get into V. I had read Lot 49 and Inherent Vice before it, but neither of them were as hard to follow. V. surprised me with taking so long to establish the narrative, so the shifts between Benny and Stencil were kinda confusing at first.
Maybe l'm just too stupid.
>>7648499
it's good, repels plebs, and he makes dick jokes. What better deal?
>>7648499
>>7648509
>4chan
right wing
misanthropic
anti drug
virgins
elitists
poorly educated
unemployable
unpublished
"working on" their novels
hate women
malicious racists
hate the beats
hate genre fiction
>pynchon
left wing
philanthrope
psychonaut
sexual liberationist
man of the people
learned in STEM and literature arts
served in the navy, worked at Boeing, wrote for literary magazines
published in college
award winning novel by 26
radical feminist
anti racist
inspired by the beats
inspired by genre fiction
maybe it's self-escapism?
>>7648643
>>4chan
>right wing
>anti drug
wat
>unpublished
>"working on" their novels
that's only THOSE of you faggots, and not everybody is a *would-be auteur*
>hate women
hardly, they're just scared
>pynchon
>served in the navy, worked at Boeing,
yeah, about his thoughts on that...
>radical feminist
not by today's standards
>inspired by the beats
he's just as critical of them (though more intelligently and less shitpostingly so)
>>7648643
>radical feminist
he's just white knighting for pussy
look at his pic
he probly hates women too
