Vineland animosity

This was the last Pynchon I had left to read. I was worried it would leave me disappointed but I ended up thoroughly enjoying it. It's made me go back and re-read inherent vice.

So what is the animosity towards it? It's not Pynchon-lite either, the narrative at times is as difficult or even more so than the most demanding passages in GR.

If anyone has put off reading it because they fear disappointment or a waste of time I urge you to give it a shot if you enjoy Pynchon.

I need to re-read Vineland along with Inherent Vice but I basically consider them spiritual sequels or two sides of the same coin, Inherent Vice I enjoyed a lot more considering I thought it was clearer and less dense than Vineland but both are still fun novels.

For sure. I really hope he puts out atleast one more novel.

Probably comes from Harold Bloom hating it and claiming it wasn't even written by Pynchon. Salman Rushdie liked it but it could be because Pynchon supported him when he had his fatwa/hiding thing going on.

I'm of the opinion that there's no consensus among Pynchon fans as to which is his best novel.

>claiming it wasn't even written by Pynchon
He's such a fanboy it's embarrassing.

He said that when it came out initially. He loves Mason & Dixon but I haven't heard him comment on AtD or the more recent novels.

DFW also voiced dislike for it. But I think it was because everyone was comparing him to Pynchon and it really pissed him off

DFW was a smug moron. I can't stand his personality which is why I can't bring myself to read him.

He also said Mao II was a failure, but it's a brilliant novel that has aged well.

I didn't hate it but it's not that good. I understand why it is the way it is, and what he was trying to accomplish with it, but the end result is underwhelming. Even Bleeding Edge had more of an impact.

I'd like to see one more novel along the lines of Mason & Dixon, Against the Day and Gravity's Rainbow, any reports of him working on anything new?

Not really. The rumor always was an insurance adjuster looking into a Godzilla type destruction. But it is actually just a part in Vineland

He was originally contracted to write an entire book about Godzilla, I think. That one part in Vineland is a vestige of that project.

I've heard rumors. A woman researching William Gaddis' plays in his works. Woman came in contact with Gaddis' publishing agent. Friend of Pynchon, or something along those lines, is what the agent claimed to be. Woman was informed by the agent that Pynchon is working on a tome about the American civil war. Not sure on the believability of the thing but I heard the tale of the woman through a reputable source.

I work at Penguin, he's had a novel "Pandemonium of The Sun" in revision since 1993.

No you don't. This is an obscure reference to a fictional novel he was mentioned as having written on some 90s TV show.

I can only dream. There's few and far between fiction on the civil war. One by Pynchon would be insane

>Pynchon is working on a tome about the American civil war

The first American civil war, or the coming American civil war?

Pynchons my fav writer for sure because my fav thing in books is goofs, gags, jokes and rambunctious behavior, and his books are full to the brim of it. Every novel is like one of those novelty snake cans, you open the book & POP you get a face fulla snakes and you fall back cackling. The mad mind, the crack genius, to do it! and then you think hmmm whats he gonna do next, this trickster, and you pick the book back up and BZZZZZZZZZZ you get a shock and Hahahahahah you've been pranked again by the old pynchmeister, that card. "Did that Pynch?" he says, laughing yukyukyukyuk. Watch him as he shoves a pair of plastic buck teeth right up into his mouth and displays em for you- left, right, center- "you like dese? Do i look handsome???" Pulls out a mirror. "Ah!" Hand to naughty mouth. And you're on your ass again laughing as he snaps his suspenders, exits stage right, and appears again hauling a huge golden gong.

It's not your grandad's literature, that's for sure.

What if it is about the actual civil war prophesing the coming civil war

This was the first and only Pynchon book I've ever read and I have to say I'm not a fan. Also, I read it like a year ago. Over complicated and for what? Sure it's cool how the plot jumps around but his transitions from one action to another were shit. It was like he was purposely trying to confuse you.

That's what I got at least and I just don't think it's worth the trouble honestly. You're clearly a fan of him though so tell me where I'm wrong I guess.

He was probably envious that Pinecone could get away with smoking mad doobie and still be able to deliver. I always assumed ""I get the strong sense he's spent twenty years smoking pot and watching T.V." was a little bit of sour grapes.

Also, and this is probably way off base, for some reason I got the sense that character of Pemulis, what with being pothead math genius who gets the boot, was partially a dig at Pynchon.

Speaking of which, how much pot do you think Piney really smokes/smoked anyway?

I may be biased as I love Pynchon and reading this felt like having a conversation with an old friend as I haven't read him in a while.

It just had the Pynchon-esqe references and metaphors. The character names
As well as the abundance of characters. What it lacks in plot, i feel it makes up in substance. Definitely a bridge point between his later novels where the characters get more development and you care more about them and the earlier novels where it's a zany Pynchon free for all most of the time. (Which there is nothing wrong with)

DUDE WEED LMAO

Yeah I guess it's just a matter of me having only read Vineland by him. My friend recommended it and I had no idea what I was getting into. But I can see how if you read his other stuff it can grow on you.

It's just that for me I didn't get much of a message out of it. Just a mashed up cluster of confusion that really didn't have much value to me. But then again I'm the type that likes a somewhat linear plot that has purpose I suppose. And his writing style is also very off for me desu

Pynchon writing a civil war novel about the firs time the Russians and Americans fought one another would be sweet.

I'm not the guy you were talking to, and I didn't think it was that great a book, but it was pretty clearly about the mediated reality created by TV and media in general from the 60s through the 80s.

Especially considering one of the first things that happens in the book is the protagonist (name escapes me) jumps through a fake window in order to appear crazy for TV and so he can keep getting disability money.

That and things like the "People's Republic of Rock and Roll", the Thanatoids, 24fps, etc.

Pynchon is my granddad.

I wonder where he buys it. Could you imagine being Pinecones dopeseller?

Jules Siegel says "a lot." I guess Pynchon's dad was a bit of an alcoholic so Pynchon never liked drinking.

> ""I get the strong sense he's spent twenty years smoking pot and watching T.V."

Isn't that what Infinite Jest is about? Muh internet stoner loneliness!

It's just pseudo intellectuals mad that they can't tee off their shitty "critiques" on top of obscurantist garbage.

this man knows

Pandemonium of the sun is a line from Blood Meridian.