Can someone explain this to me?

you're a moron, how probably hasn't read it

Are you too judging books because you can't relate to the main character ?

You mean this?

airshipdaily.com/blog/07222014-reading-public

He deserved it if he was going around making it clear what he was reading, or went out of his way to point it out.
I've never brought up literature in a conversation unless it was actually relevant to whatever was being discussed. I don't hide it when people ask, but nobody likes a person who has to broadcast his perceived superiority through his interests.
>oh look at me lugging Bottom's Dream onto the subway every morning
literature should be an experience between you and the author, and trying to talk to people who don't read about how much you do is just like that guy who smirks because you didn't see all the avengers lead-up films. neither of you are really looking to converse, you're using your interests as a way to put down others.

I've so considered this unironically

What is the point of Pynchon? Is it all just stylistic gimmick that is supposed to reference that boring idea that "there is no meta-narrative/coherence anymore" and therefore paranoia and conspiracy theories can thrive?
I've heard he also deals with technology, but the very few descriptions of this that I came across (after much searching) just talk about cold war tech.
As a non-burger it seems the whole obsession with him is purely American. Burgers like fatty pastiches and the idea of a "Great American Novel".
BTW, I really like DeLillo who at least has something more concrete to say. Although I'm equally perplexed by Americans overrating Underworld, imo his other works (e.g. Libra, Mao II) are better.

hello Sweden
boom!!!

Yeah that's it but apparently when I had seen it someone from Veeky Forums had edited it so the book David was reading was indeed Finnegans Wake.

Ok disregard this post. Nobody ever edited it. Idk why in my memory I thought David had been reading FW on the train. But still you get the point I made in my original post.

*holds up spork*

something like.... her life is so boring and she tries to cling onto any intriguing/meaningful thing that she finds

Must be cause underworld is his fattest book

I think it's more because Harold Bloom said so

I don't think the lack of narrative coherence is a big, meta statement or anything like that. He just seems to like to throw a microscopic gaze on a certain topic/theme and then switch over to something else. The individual parts are often more important than the whole, and the narrative just sort of glues it all together.

Paranoia and conspiracy theories are a) something that he's clearly interested in, particularly when the theories have been justified (at least in part) and b) a convenient way to be able to cover such a broad range of topics, as you can flit between multiple groups/organisations/characters in reference to how an individual situation/topic can be seen.

It's not so complicated as it's cracked up to be until he starts using complex scientific/metaphysical concepts as metaphors. That in itself is an achievement, but also excludes most people from being able to understand everything, which is frustrating enough that you see threads like this pop up.

PS- not American and very much enjoy Pynchon. Reading chronologically and up to Mason & Dixon now, V and GR are tied favourites atm

I have a prof who edited a collection of essays on Against The Day next semester, we are reading TCOL49 but I have already read it. What should I read by him next to prep for the class? Asking generally, not just this poster.

Is Pynchon worth reading? Are all his books good or only v, 49 and GR?

Being up to Mason & Dixon, it seems like TCoL49 is a bit of an outlier within his ouvre, largely just because of it's brevity. Some cite it as his best work purely because of that fact.

I think it's indisputable to argue that any of his books are as influential as GR, so that's probably the logical conclusion. Many of the main thematic elements are similar, but you'll be able to contrast the forms of the two quite efficiently in an essay, I'd say.

V. is a similarly large commitment, and less broad/paranoid than GR, which is a ridiculous thing to have to say about a book as broad as V. It's a fucking monster, and very good in it's own right.

Note: I have no academic experience with Pynchon, and only took a few tertiary level English classes out of interest.

Thanks pal

As ... someone ... noted much earlier on this very board, it's a puzzle book like Pale Fire. Oedipa Mass (if you say it aloud it sounds like "Head Up My Ass") is undergoing some kind of breakdown, a la Torquato Tasso ("turned badger"/"Thurn and Taxis").

Bill Murray did not promote the head-up-my-ass, stupid. And it's 'Maas'.

>Bill Murray did not promote the head-up-my-ass

No, I did. But it does kinda tickle the old noggin wouldn't you say? This is a novelist who likes to play around with names.

Apologies for the typo.

Not really. Pretty half baked. Maas, the surname, is derived from Thomas. The Biblical Thomas did what again?

Maas is also the name of a river. A river that traces the boundary of the Holy Roman Empire. Gee whiz, Mr Misprint had an empire... Mz Maas ends up doing wha?

>those connections

How the hell did I miss all that? Yikes I must be stupid.

Also, hello Mr. Murray. I do think you just made my Saturday night.

Here's an even stranger connection:

warosu.org/lit/thread/S7190038#p7190134

Please go back to /r/eddit.

I have my doubts 'e's a redd'tor desu senpai

And surprise, surprise, I'm in that thread as well (I spotted the Melville reference). You and us, us and you, swimming in this baffling cyber sea together. What a time.

I've never been there. Listen to

Harold Bloom sez Underworld is overlong

I was trying to make a joke at American's expense (tho being American)

why does she have sex with people so quickly and easily

She only has sex with Metzger, doesn't she? I heard it's meant to mirror some Egyptian fertility rite or something

Beh.

can anybody send me a link to 1-48?