Just finished reading this today. Anybody want to have a discussion on it? Some parts were pretty confusing for me, but most of it was entertaining and I thought it was incredibly well written for a debut novel.
I found the parts with the Whole Sick Crew very amusing. My favorite part of the novel was probably Profane with the underground alligator hunters. The plastic surgery scene sticks out as well.
What did you like/dislike about the novel? What did you think of the structure and the historical tangents?
Ryder Powell
>The plastic surgery scene sticks out as well somehow pynchon's later shit stuff never got to be as discomforting as that one
the so-called structure is of no value, the tangents are fine, the shoehorned short fiction was nto fine
Eli Sanders
bumping my V. thread... I finished a Pynchon book and now nobody on Veeky Forums wants to talk about it I guess.
Leo Edwards
It's been a while since I read V. but I wasn't a huge fan. I enjoyed parts of it and I disliked others. Overall I was more glad to have finished so I could start something else than I was happy about actually having read the book. I enjoyed the sewer parts and also the Navy shenanigans (I'm in the Navy).
Adrian Jackson
>My favorite part of the novel was probably Profane with the underground alligator hunters That was great. I think my favourite part was right after, when Stencil was considering that the sewer rat was V. I thought that Fausto's confession was very interesting, despite not knowing anything about him until that point. Viewing Malta through his diary was nice. I enjoyed the whole book, had me guessing who V. is, if V. actually exists, if she's a woman or a rat or a city, if the Whole Sick Crew and the rest have anything to do with the story, what the story was about anyway etc etc. My 2nd pinecone, a very engaging and fun book.
Easton Butler
I started feeling this way towards the end, especially with the epilogue. I felt invested in Profane and having him just be absent while the book was wrapping up made it less engaging I guess.
what was your first pinecone? 49?
Aiden Wood
Yes. I now also have Mason & Dixon and Against the Day but I haven't read either yet.
Ayden Hall
V is easily my fav Pynchon novel. The alligator sewer hunting is an allegory for Moby Dick and penning a novel with the same breadth, I think, which he captured later in GR. I never knew about the whole "forgotten genocide" of that African tribe the Herreros until I read V. I think it's as good of a freewheeling SciFi novel about a future transhumanism takeover as you'll ever read. The plastic surgery scene was just one instance of turning into us all into robots. I haven't read the book in 3 years now and it was highly dense, converging dozens of historical fiction into one cluster fuck so Im going to have to go back and reread it for a full understanding. It was an incredible story though, I remember that much
Carson Jackson
How did you feel about Stencil Sr. not actually been Stencil Jr.’s father? And Veronica maybe being his mother? Personally I didn’t expect it at all and loved it
Xavier Mitchell
what was there to suggest that?
Logan Gray
Why do people call it V (Vee) when it's actually V. (Vee dot) ? Also is V. (Vee dot) a subtle nod to godot, as in veedot (veedoh)?
Wyatt Brooks
shit I gave my copy to my gf so I can't check the actual page, but I remember in the last chapter when Stencil Sr. is thingken about Victoria he kind of suggests it could be possible, with her being a slut in Paris iirc
Nicholas Jones
call it whateva you want brutha I'm high as fluck.
Jackson Ward
Discuss? What was confusing?
You were entertained, wow. You(!) think it's INCREDIBLY well written—woah. Even though it's merely a debut novel!
How are your favorite parts the worst parts? What'd you think of Mondaugen's Story?
Did you pick up on how "Profane" comes from "profanum" meaning "outside the temple"—the character who is counterpoint to Stencil? Stencil being the man who projects through the stencil or "temple" of historical documents... psychically trapped in the past...
Also, Punch-in himself stencilizes the Baedekers for the Stencil sections... Weird right?
Joshua Peterson
It's clearly called V. (Five)
Thomas Ortiz
Surely V. is something that lends itself to re-reading? I sort of like some of it, was lost in other parts. I'm reading GR right now so maybe it will provide further clarity to V.'s overall story.
Lincoln Wright
Mondaugen's Story was of course good, but that's the part of the novel you are supposed to like anyway.
Jeremiah Martin
wat
Evan Allen
Joyce made a joke about naming books after single letters just to highlight how juvenile and pseudy Stephen Daedelus was and Pynchon actually does it. What a hack
David Jones
why do i get the feeling joyce would pop pynchon unconscious in 5 seconds flat?
Elijah Fisher
context or btfo?
Gavin Young
Doesn't it start on Christmas or New Years Eve or something?
Dominic Brooks
Thats a pretty juvenile and pseudy opinion.
Brayden Rogers
Hahaha oh yeah! I never made that connection.
Jace James
Same here. Liked the Italy and Malta stuff best. V's dismantling, Melanie's 'accident,' the fate of the Xebec, the liveliness of things at the expense of the liveliness of human beings, and therefore a general aloofness.. and V. at the core who if nothing else profoundly cared, though about what is hard to figure. Great novel.
Kevin Richardson
But Stephen was Joyce.
Hm? well who was Francis Bacon by that stretch?
Charles Rogers
Stephen was based on Joyce but only in the same way dudes in green text stories are based on the Anons that wrote them