version's Thomas Pynchon masterclass

version

Well-known member
if you were going to do pynchon justice which a) i cant be bothered to do and b) probably isnt worth it not only would you need to read slowly you would also need to pursue all the libnes of research eg alright then what was ig farben
but weren't you saying somewhere else about modernist writing that reading all the commentary is an important thing to do.
It hinges on whether or not you're genuinely interested in the rabbit holes he's sending you down and whether you like the books enough to put that sort of time and effort into getting more out of them. The same goes for the modernist stuff, like Catalog says. I like Joyce, but I haven't spent as much time looking into stuff to do with Ulysses as I have Gravity's Rainbow because Catholicism, Irish politics and 1900s Dublin isn't as interesting to me atm as what Pynchon's writing about.

Whether or not doing this stuff is "worth it" is entirely dependent on how interesting you find it, imo. I could spend a huge amount of time on etymology in Prynne or Pound or Irish politics in Joyce, but I'd ultimately be in the same boat as having spent a huge amount of time on the stuff in Pynchon. It's not really for anyone but yourself. Nobody else is going to have much use for it, unless you're looking to become some sort of professional scholar.
 

version

Well-known member
Further context for Vineland,


DeLillo, Atwood and Grant Morrison get a mention too. I'd forgotten about this bit in White Noise,

‘That’s quite an armband you’ve got there. What does SIMUVAC mean? Sounds important.’
‘Short for simulated evacuation. A new state program they’re still battling over funds for.’
‘But this evacuation isn’t simulated. It’s real.’
‘We know that. But we thought we could use it as a model.’
‘A form of practice? Are you saying you saw a chance to use the real event in order to rehearse the simulation?’
‘We took it right into the streets.’

😅
 

version

Well-known member
I think all the crap humour and blatant silliness is part of the point, FWIW, although I'd have trouble articulating how. If everything was serious and plausible they'd be much weaker books...
This bit at the end of Foucault's preface to Anti-Oedipus seems plausible with regard to Pynchon too,

"It could even be said that Deleuze and Guattari care so little for power that they have tried to neutralize the effects of power linked to their own discourse. Hence the games and snares scattered throughout the book, rendering its translation a feat of real prowess. But these are not the familiar traps of rhetoric; the latter work to sway the reader without his being aware of the manipulation, and ultimately win him over against his will. The traps of Anti-Oedipus are those of humor: so many invitations to let oneself be put out, to take one's leave of the text and slam the door shut. The book often leads one to believe it is all fun and games, when something essential is taking place, something of extreme seriousness: the tracking down of all varieties of fascism, from the enormous ones that surround and crush us to the petty ones that constitute the tyrannical bitterness of our everyday lives."

That and him having a goofy sensibility and that being just how he writes.
 

version

Well-known member
There was a bit in Vineland earlier where he was going on about some California shopping centre based around old Hollywood and there's an "upscale mineral-water boutique" called "Bubble Indemnity"...

🤣
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
There was a bit in Vineland earlier where he was going on about some California shopping centre based around old Hollywood and there's an "upscale mineral-water boutique" called "Bubble Indemnity"...

🤣
I'm piqued that you obviously love some puns, but always hate my puns.
 

version

Well-known member
I like some of them, but we need some sort of angry but also laughing emoji for the really excruciating ones. That's usually how I'm using the angry one when I respond to yours.

I was like this when I read that Pynchon one,

tenor.gif
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
It's a legal concept, isn't it? That you can't be tried twice for the same crime, something that.
 

luka

Well-known member
yeah i'll try get hold of a copy at some point. i did have it in mind from ages ago cos of sinclair, but i stopped that avenue when i read some of sinclair's actual poetry and thought nah.

have you ever written prose? i like a lot of prose written by people who used to be poets - sinclair, bolano
have you read this yet? what about @craner have you finished maximus yet?
 
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