So, I've previously avoided Pynchon, largely because I think I've been afraid of him - for lack of better words. Lately, I've been thinking about finally giving him a go.
Before I start into a new author, I read excerpts of famous passages and any famous existing analysis of its themes and meanings and I research the author's background and try to learn as much about the author as I'm able. As I've begun to learn more about Pynchon and read various theories of his work, I'm getting more and more excited to dive into his canon. If I'm being honest, I've only really understood him as a meme from coming here (and maybe that will stay true?) and I'd like to finally give him an honest chance and see if I like his stuff.
Anyone read Pynchon willing to share what it is about his work, in particular, that makes him your favorite author or one of your favorites? There are Pynchon memes all over this place but it seems to be pretty rare that he's discussed with any seriousness.
I'd also be interested in hearing from those who don't take his work seriously after having read him, and why?
>>7911999
He has a great sense of humor, is adept at evoking a mood of genuine paranoia, and occasionally writes beautiful passages.
>>7911999
I like him because I feel like I learn more from his books than I do from anything else. He always seems to elude understanding, and the experience of reading his books if often frustrating and dull, but nonetheless, I managed to read them all, so he must have been doing something right. There are passages of extraordinary beauty in his stuff (particularly Against the Day, if that's what you're after) and a level of depth that you won't find anywhere else, tempered with jokes and silly allusions, so it doesn't get to stuffy and serious. He's talking about the big things that matter in our lives, from war to technology to family, in a way that is completely reckless and fearless, and admittedly in a way that doesn't always land, but that's what makes him great.
>>7912010
>I like him because I feel like I learn more from his books than I do from anything else. He always seems to elude understanding, and the experience of reading his books if often frustrating and dull, but nonetheless, I managed to read them all, so he must have been doing something right. There are passages of extraordinary beauty in his stuff (particularly Against the Day, if that's what you're after) and a level of depth that you won't find anywhere else, tempered with jokes and silly allusions, so it doesn't get to stuffy and serious. He's talking about the big things that matter in our lives, from war to technology to family, in a way that is completely reckless and fearless, and admittedly in a way that doesn't always land, but that's what makes him great.
I was reading someone who said he was the first writer of "hypertext fiction" that didn't have hypertexts. Would you agree?
They meant it like this: "Hypertext fiction is a genre of electronic literature, characterized by the use of hypertext links which provide a new context for non-linearity in literature and reader interaction."
>>7912006
>occasionally writes beautiful passages
Do you find they're few and far between? I'm relatively familiar with Cormac McCarthy, as an example who I like, but I feel sometimes that he's trying to be almost too beautiful with every sentence he writes (if that makes sense).
>>7912031
re hypertext, I'm honestly not knowledgable enough about literature to know whether he was the first to do anything, but he's endlessly and compulsively digressive, more than willing to explore the hidden corners of everything regardless of what it does to the flow of the narrative, and maybe this is what the person you were reading meant.
re beautiful passages, he's the exact opposite of a perfectionist, and I don't find that his writing feels labored over in the same way that Cormac McCarthy's (or, say, Don DeLillo's) does (in fact, in his introduction to Slow Learner, he advises against endlessly revising sentences to achieve some imaginary asymptotic perfection), but he's more than capable of describing something evocatively and beautifully if the muse is there to greet him that day. On a sentence-by-sentence basis, he's great writer, as if he can't help but be, but you do have to go digging for the really extraordinary passages.
>>7912031
I don't think Pynchon constantly tries to write things like that, but most of the time, when he does, it works. I'd like to think he spaces them out for maximum effect.
>>7912047
>re hypertext, I'm honestly not knowledgable enough about literature to know whether he was the first to do anything, but he's endlessly and compulsively digressive, more than willing to explore the hidden corners of everything regardless of what it does to the flow of the narrative, and maybe this is what the person you were reading meant.
Yeah that's what they meant.
>On a sentence-by-sentence basis, he's great writer, as if he can't help but be, but you do have to go digging for the really extraordinary passages.
>I don't think Pynchon constantly tries to write things like that, but most of the time, when he does, it works. I'd like to think he spaces them out for maximum effect.
Interesting.
>>7911999
Mason & Dixon is his best book
>>7912112
Except it's not and that's just a meme opinion.
>>7911999
>when you go onto /lit/ and see people discussing you
>>7912115
>but it is my best book
>>7912117
Hey Bill
>>7912117
Lord, what I would do for a timestamped Pynchon pic on /lit/.
>>7912138
I don't believe the memers who say he comes here and point to those one or two threads as proof. We only get faggots like Tao Lin & Friends.
I've read V. and The Crying of Lot 49, and I can't wait to read his other stuff. His writing is so uniquely idiosyncratic, I love it.
>>7911999
He once said to a close friend, "Every weirdo in the world is on my wavelength." I feel like I am one of those weirdos. There were moments when I was first reading Gravity's Rainbow that I started to get scared because of how accurately he described how paranoid unease can dribble into casual thought. Not scared like horror movie scared, but scared on a sort of existential, reality-denying level. I had to stop reading it before bed because I would get all kinds of nutty dreams. In one of them I was attending Thomas Pynchon University (TPU), which I think is sort of funny now.
He's probably the funniest and most intelligent writer who's active today. You shouldn't read him to check off some big red [X] on your list of difficult books you want to say you've read; you should read him to be challenged and entertained on a level that's really quite rare in contemporary literature. He's a beautiful writer with an incredible ear for the rhythms of language, history and thought. He's not just a meme to me, he's an entire genre of art. In the coming centuries, long after he and all of us are dead, people will still remember and study his books.
>>7912146
>His writing is so uniquely idiosyncratic, I love it.
A lot of people call it idiosyncratic, yet he's consistently named one of the best living writers. It makes it all the more interesting. You'd think it'd be someone who aligns with a majority of sensibilities. It takes a special talent to be so unique and so recognized for that uniqueness.
>>7912151
Wow am I you? I was just about to write the same type of response.
I'm re-reading Gravity's Rainbow now and it is definitely my favorite novel
>>7912161
Hey, mine too! But I guess that's not completely surprising on /lit/.
>>7912150
I know that feel, but I can't do it myself. I'd only be setting myself up for disappointment because the disbelief would be too strong.
>>7912151
>You shouldn't read him to check off some big red [X] on your list of difficult books you want to say you've read; you should read him to be challenged and entertained on a level that's really quite rare in contemporary literature.
That's part of why I made the post and why I never read him before. I made one attempt before to check off the big red [X] and I stopped (real quick actually) because I figured he just "really wasn't for me" and "the memes were probably right." But now, I've started to slowly look deeper into why people speak about him the way you do, and I am much more interested than I was previously.
Maybe I've just grown up a bit. I don't know. Maybe I've grown down? If that makes sense? Meaning, I often only tried to read classics and "high-art" but now I'm starting to think that maybe "literature" shouldn't be taking itself so seriously.
Not that it shouldn't be taking itself seriously in the sense that it needs to dumb itself down, just that it's subject matter may need to adapt(?). That probably doesn't make sense. Maybe I'm just starting to look for something different.
>>7912195
I don't think it's that uncommon. Postmodern authors like Pynchon aren't the types you'd be willing to give a chance until you got over the idea that literature needs to be 100% serious all the time in every way.
I think it's why DFW was so popular. Because even though he wrote about serious subject matter, he did it in a way that wasn't all gloom and doom or erudite to the point of being indecipherable all the time.
>>7912195
Stop navel-gazing and read the fucking book, little Marco.
>>7912216
Ha. I deserved that.
WHy don't you just read his books, you little autismo?
What would you do in this situation?
>>7912309
I'd be a thoughtful neighbor.
Knock on his door and offer him some fresh banana pancakes
>>7912309
Respect his privacy. Duh.
It's impressive enough that he's been able to avoid it this long, desu. It's like not talking to a pitcher during a perfect game. Superstitious or not, I wouldn't want to be the guy to say something and screw it up, know what I mean?
>>7912309
Not post about it on reddit.
>>7912322
Blueberries are the way to his heart, anon.
>>7912309
Is it sad that I've fantasized about him being my literary mentor before without even really meaning to?
>>7912322
I believe he might actually resort to violence if someone did that.
>>7912332
I truly have no idea how he's been able to avoid the situation. It honestly makes no sense.
He has to be living under fake names, or Thomas Pynchon is a fake name itself, and he exclusively associates only with no more than a few trusted, lifelong friends.
It doesn't make sense. It just doesn't make sense.
>>7912374
>Thomas Pynchon is a fake name itself
>>7912397
>>7912374
Maybe he rents things under his wife's maiden name?
>>7911999
nah
>>7912435
I don't know. I mean, he's even got a kid in college or just out of college or something.
It just doesn't make sense that nothing has come out and he lives in New York. It's a mystery as mysterious as anything he ever wrote about. It's that incredible that a guy that famous for having so little pictures has not had someone bum rush him and sell it to TMZ or some shit.
Don't get me wrong, Pynchon fans are not TMZ's target audience, but there are websites and fans out there who would be interested in this picture.
It just doesn't make sense.
Pynchon's works have a sort of fractal quality to them that is extremely impressive on a technical level. He writes a lot of digressions that are essentially short stories with a tangential connection to the main narrative, but which are deeply integrated thematically with the work as a whole.
He's funny, he's got a lot of great sentences, impressive research, fantastic at mixing "high" and "low" culture, mixing the realistic with the psychedelic, the historical with the fictional, etc.
If you want an appetizer, google for "byron the bulb", it's one of those embedded short stories but it stands on its own legs.
>>7912322
Don't ever do this.
>>7912561
actually, do
>>7912374
>>7912456
>>7912569
The man clearly doesn't want to be bothered, so leave him alone? There's a reason he doesn't run around yelling "I'M THOMAS PYNCHON!" in public.
>>7912697
That sounds like exactly something Thomas Pynchon would do to get people off his scent...
>>7912309
>Thomas Pynchon, an author who has been hiding
Yeah. Hiding. In Manhattan.
Dumb fucking reddit whore
>>7912309
Pinecone is ex-CIA. That woman is probably dead now and that reddit account no longer "active."
>>7912332
That sounds like something a Pynchon character woud say
>>7912508
What I loved about Byron is that he was based on the actual international lightbulb conspiracy of intentional obsolescence perpetuated by the Phoebus cartel. Even the wackiest-seeming parts of his books are based in fact to some extent.
>>7913906
>Ex-cia
Maybe getting caught is part of his plan
>>7914750
What would happen if Papa Pinecone sneaked a baneposting reference in his last novel?
Even better, what if he has a biography whose last part are 4chan shitposts alone across multiple boards dating from 2004?
>>7912332
I once saw his son, Jackson's, Facebook profile picture before he tightened down his security settings.
It's not that baffling. His fanbase tends to respect him, and the ones who don't are 14 and live in rural Indiana without the means to bother him. Everyone who cares to find out knows where Pynchon's son went to school, at least one club he was in college, the contact info for Pynchon's wife's agency, and that if they wanted to lift the final veil, they could look up Pynchon's address in New York public records. But they don't, or if they do they keep a low profile. People came out of the woodwork to shit on that one guy who took a creepshot of him and his son.
>>7912322
If he moved in next to me, I probably wouldn't be able to resist a gift basket with a shitload of Bananas in it, but also a nice bottle of wine to make up for meme'ing IRL.
>>7914866
Haven't smoked in years, but I would probably invite him over for kush and cartoons. I wonder if he likes the Venture Bros.
>>7914823
>Baneposting in a Pynchon novel
Praise be to Kek. It must be so.
>>7914866
>I once saw his son, Jackson's, Facebook profile picture before he tightened down his security settings.
Dude, everyone saw it. It was posted here.
>It's not that baffling. His fanbase tends to respect him, and the ones who don't are 14 and live in rural Indiana without the means to bother him. Everyone who cares to find out knows where Pynchon's son went to school, at least one club he was in college, the contact info for Pynchon's wife's agency, and that if they wanted to lift the final veil, they could look up Pynchon's address in New York public records. But they don't, or if they do they keep a low profile. People came out of the woodwork to shit on that one guy who took a creepshot of him and his son.
Again, yes, everyone knows. It's still pretty incredible nobody in media with an agenda or trying to make a name for themselves has either gone through the trouble to take a picture themselves or paid for and published the picture. It's still pretty incredible that no one who needs money hasn't sold a picture to a media organization. It's still pretty incredible that none of Jackson's friends have snapped a photo and post it on their instagram or something for the likes.
>>7914895
TP and his family honestly must be cool as shit if everyone who comes into contact with them respects them this much.
That or they're not real.
In IV he uses an emoticon
>O.O
to describe a characters reaction. what do you think of this? He also uses the word epic multiple times
>>7912144
Which threads?
>>7914953
The Torquato Tasso & IV/Pet Sounds threads.
I'm sure someone can link you to their archives, if you're interested.
>>7914963
If someone could do that, it would be appreciated.
>>7914972
Here's a few of them, but I think there's more:
https://warosu.org/lit/thread/S3039755#p3040573
https://warosu.org/lit/thread/S7337509#p7337678
https://warosu.org/lit/thread/S667543
>>7911999
Intelligent, Nihilistic and with a Wicked Sense of Humor.
>>7914937
dont remember that at all. either way it was written in 2009 back when "Epic" was just starting to get old. dont make too much out of it.
