New Pynchon book coming out

[Mr. Premise]

From AP:

Late last week, the book's description - allegedly written by Pynchon - was posted on Amazon.com. It reads in part:

"Spanning the period between the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and the years just after World War I, this novel moves from the labor troubles in Colorado to turn-of-the-century New York, to London and Gottingen, Venice and Vienna, the Balkans, Central Asia, Siberia at the time of the mysterious Tunguska Event, Mexico during the Revolution, postwar Paris, silent-era Hollywood, and one or two places not strictly speaking on the map at all.

"With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred."

 

[D Rusak]

I was just about to post a link to this. I only have read one Pynchon work in its entirety, Gravity's Rainbow, which in my book holds a unique place in being the only text to physically make me vomit. Anyone who has read the various sex scenes in the book will know what I mean. I finished the book to see if there was any discernable point to it. While I respect the man's creative genius, I really didn't know what to make of it. I satisfied myself by determining it to be a very screwed-up pornographic novel, written by a man who was turned on by the obscure. (Note: I later met a good friend of Pynchon's, who, the first time we were not around others, propositioned me to be in a pornographic film. This served to validate that view in my mind.) I now feel that the book is somewhat of a how-to in psychopathy. It's surprising in a way how many people have read his works, which are required reading in many universities. With that quote from Amazon, it makes me wonder if he's cointelpro.

 

[Mr. Premise]

Well, he is a little strange...

But I really liked Mason & Dixon and Vineland as well. And I have learned a lot reading his books. Mostly they taught me how little I knew and how much I had to learn, which is a good lesson.

His later books don't have so many disgusting scenes, but they all usually have one.

 

[D Rusak]

I guess my reply was hasty- I didn't set out to completely bash Pynchon. I DID, however, have a very strong reaction to GR (and excerpts of other works I'd read). That, combined with what personal knowledge (although filtered through a person who had definite psychopathic traits as well) I had of the man made more red flags pop up for me. I'll definitely check out Mason Dixon and Vineland. Hopefully I will have better perspective now after being exposed to the C's material/SOTT/etc and just general knowledge seeking.

 

[Mr. Premise]

You could be right about him about being COINTELPRO. I think I remember something about him having been an MKULTA subject. I enjoy his books and learn a lot from them, but he does know some weird things... His family came over on the Mayflower, so he knows a lot about the ruling class and ruling class black magic, so he can be both informative and scary.

You seem to have a better imagination than me, though, if you got physically sick reading Gravity's Rainbow. For me the events in his fiction have a kind of unreal quality. Not usually vivid like some writers.

There is a real moral core to Mason & Dixon, IMO (anti-slavery). Maybe because one of the main characters is a Quaker. The fake 18th century epic poem about Pennsylvania he quotes from is hilarious (the Pennsylvaniad, by Timothy Toth). A great satire on that kind of epic poem.

It is also pretty hilarious about the Mason/Jesuit paranoia from those times. The protestants all imagine that the Jesuits have all these super-powers and the Catholics think that about the Masons.

But basically, it is a historical novel about a friendship (between Mason and Dixon).

Vineland, on the other hand, kind of disturbed me on first reading, until I read it again and realized that there is NO sympathetic character. They are all jerks of one kind or another. But it is one of the best things I've read on undercover informants and how corrupting that is. Also good on Nixon-era police state repression and McCarty era Hollywood purges, and the sexiness of fascism. After reading it you will always think of it when you hear that song from the 80s, "I love a man in a uniform."

 

[D Rusak]

You seem to have a better imagination than me, though, if you got physically sick reading Gravity's Rainbow.

Actually, let me edit what I said previously. GR is the only work of pure fiction that has made me throw up. I've definitely gotten sick a few times from reading, say, the news lately.