How come you're not celebrating the birth of Pynchon by reading one of his great books? He's 80 years old today, guys

He will die soon and the heyday of ostmodernism with him, bye, BYE BYE

he will live forever, my main man

Is Against the Day really a "dud"? Why is there so much negativity towards it?

I didn't think so, i'm not sure why the writer of the article said it was a dud. i assume the guardian weren't keen on it?

On its wiki page, it seemed to have annoyed some critics as well.

happy birthday thomas pynchon sir

please notice me ok??

I saw Thomas Pynchon at a grocery store in Los Angeles yesterday. I told him how cool it was to meet him in person, but I didn’t want to be a douche and bother him and ask him for photos or anything.
He said, “Oh, like you’re doing now?”
I was taken aback, and all I could say was “Huh?” but he kept cutting me off and going “huh? huh? huh?” and closing his hand shut in front of my face. I walked away and continued with my shopping, and I heard him chuckle as I walked off. When I came to pay for my stuff up front I saw him trying to walk out the doors with like fifteen Milky Ways in his hands without paying.
The girl at the counter was very nice about it and professional, and was like “Sir, you need to pay for those first.” At first he kept pretending to be tired and not hear her, but eventually turned back around and brought them to the counter.
When she took one of the bars and started scanning it multiple times, he stopped her and told her to scan them each individually “to prevent any electrical infetterence,” and then turned around and winked at me. I don’t even think that’s a word. After she scanned each bar and put them in a bag and started to say the price, he kept interrupting her by yawning really loudly.

Check 'em and he dies within the year.

fuck off death grips

i thought it was flylo first, not death grips

doesn't he live in New York?

> but I didn't want to be a douche and bother him and ask him for photos or anything.
> He said, "Oh, like you're doing now?"

I know this is old pasta but I could imagine this being Pynchon.

...

Is it typical for Gravity's Rainbow to take 3 months or longer to finish? Just finished it and although I found it enjoyable yet difficult, I'm embarrassed it took me so long to read it. Will Mason & Dixon take less time to read?

took me about 2 months, it's bound to take a large chunk of your time up. partly you're re-reading sentences to try and interpret what it means, and there's enough passages like that that once you think you've understood the sentence, the next three will need re-reading just as much. it does help a bit having an online guide at hand to help get through it.

you'll probably find a second reading will help you familiarise yourself with the book more hopefully you'll be more acquainted with pynchon's prose abilities that it wouldn't feel as daunting to re-read. if you ever consider re-reading it that is of course.

I'm Pynchton. Ask me alomost everything.

Iirc it was reviewed in one hell of a hurry by critics (like, within a week of its release), which we all know isn't really enough time in which to properly digest and form an opinion on one of Pynchon's tomes. It's also supposedly his hardest to follow and most plotless (though I'm over 300 pages in and haven't yet found this to be true), which probably exacerbates that.

That's why I'd imagine it had negative critical responses. Shame, cause I'm loving it.

Nah, took me about two months (with whole weeks where I didn't touch it, to be fair). Three months is acceptable.

Bump. I want to see if these are real

I finished GR a few days ago, but I intend to tackle ATD soon

> Pynchton

Wait a minute._._

Mason and dixon, no doubt

Dont worry about it, you dont need to speed read, especially someone like pynchon. As long as you take your time to appreciate his work and you're enjoying it then who cares if it takees a while.

M&D is a longer book but nowhere near as difficult as GR. It will still take a while but prob. not as long.

check him and he is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never did

>You should read Pynchon because he's a leftist and has strong female characters
Why do people read this shitrag?

Do you mean the Guardian? They've gotta appeal to their base.

I don't think Pynchon is particularly left or right. I feel that V. was a critique of the shallowness of the hippie/beatnik culture which would probably upset any modern day lefties if theyve read it.

desu pynchman hates capitalismo it's pretty difficult to argue against that. memes fundamentally belong to awareness / compassion & there is no memer like thomas

I'm currently reading a few dense books and realize speed reading is nothing to brag about, at the very least for books like Gravitys Rainbow, IJ, Ulysses, etc. It extends to nonfiction. Try to speed read Das Kapital and actually retain what he's saying. You get the idea. Don't be embarassed, you did fine and you actually finished it.

i love you Pinecone, happy birthday

Honestly speaking, The Guardian have a lot of shit articles but they can also have some very admirable coverage of certain topics. Plus, they're good for film and book reviews.

This. I prefer to read a book slowly if I'm enjoying it. I can remember a book more if I've read it slowly plus if it's a true joy to read, I don't mind spending a month or two on a doorstopper.