Pynchon

[billygomberg]

Acts have consequences, Dixon, they must. These Louts believe all’s right now,—that they are free to get on with Lives that are to them no doubt important,—with no Glimmer at all of the Debt they have taken on. That is what I smell’d—Lethe-water. One of the things the newly born forget, is how terrible its Taste, and Smell. In Time, these People are able to forget ev’rything. Be willing to wait but a little, and ye may gull them again and again, however ye wish,—even unto their own Dissolution. In America, as I apprehend, Time is the true river that runs ’round Hell.

- Mason & Dixon, 346

well, as I just posted in the Parks/Foster thread - underrated book.

[faster]

Oh shit

[surfer]

It may seem obvious to say this, but there's such value in rereading things. Books you read long ago that moved you but have faded in your memory, sections whose full depth might have eluded you on first pass, passages to immediately reread outloud for the sheer music. You dont have to worry about following the plot, or character roster, you can just enjoy the words. Many of my friends act like their reading lists are tourist sites or a bucket list to be checked off; been there, done that, throw it in the Lethe.

I had forgotten how powerful the Lancaster Towne visit is. Its to Pynchon's credit that he can turn so quickly from more light-hearted material to the moral darkness of the Indian massacre site and skillfully make both affect the reader. The juxtaposition increasing the effect. Those 4 pages contain some of the best writing in the book, the more famous passage which I remembered:

"Does Britannia, when she sleeps, dream? And is America her dream? - in which all that cannot pass in the metropolitan Wakefulness is allow'd Expression away in the restless Slumber of these Provinces, and on West-ward, wherever 'tis not yet mapp'd, nor written down, nor ever, by the majority of Mankind, seen - serving as a very Rubbish-Tip for subjunctive Hopes, for all that may yet be true - Earthly Paradise, Fountain of Youth, Realms of Prester John, Christ's Kingdom, ever behind the sunset, safe until the next Territory to the West be seen and recorded, measur'd and tied in, back into the Net-Work of points already known, that slowly triangulates its Way into the Continent, changing all from subjunctive to declarative, reducing Possibilities to Simplicities that serve the ends of Governments, - winning away from the realm of the Sacred, its Borderlands one by one, and assuming them unto the bare mortal World that is our home, and our Despair."


as well as the prologue that opens the next chapter:



Facts are but the Play-things of lawyers,--Tops and Hoops, forever a-spin... Alas, the Historian may indulge no such idle Rotating. History is not Chronology, for that is left to lawyers,--nor is it Remembrance, for Remembrance belongs to the People. History can as little pretend to the Veracity of the one, as claim the Power of the other,--her Practitioners, to survive, must soon learn the arts of the quidnunc, spy, and Taproom Wit,--that there may ever continue more than one life-line back into a Past we risk, each day, losing our forebears in forever,--not a Chain of single Links, for one broken Link could lose us All,--rather, a great disorderly Tangle of Lines, long and short, weak and strong, vanishing into the Mnemonick Deep, with only their Destination in common.
--Rev. Cherrycoke, Christ and History

[surfer]

Thomas Pynchon's fingers form a V in the shadows of the door

[surfer]

On the Thomas Pynchon Trail: From the Long Island of His Boyhood to the ‘Yupper West Side’ of His New Novel


http://www.vulture.com/2013/08/thomas-p ... -edge.html



"Bleeding Edge" drops Sept 17

[jon abbey]

someone was telling me recently he lives here now, and even that they knew a fair amount about the specifics, like it wasn't so secret anymore, at least in certain circles.

edit: looks like the linked article says the same thing, never mind.

[mudd]

i liked that article. though i object to a man in his 70s being labeled a yuppie.

m

[Piano Mouth]

Inherent Vice - Trailer - (Dec 2014)

http://youtu.be/wZfs22E7JmI

Idk...yay? Just picked up the book and am also reading Vineland now too. The only other book I've finished reading by Pynchon was Gravity's Rainbow tho I've also got just a few more chapters to go in Bleeding Edge.

[mudd]

i expect that movie to be pretty interesting. it's by far pynchon's most filmable book, and the themes are already well aligned with the director's interests.

m

[Piano Mouth]

How old is Thomas Pynchon anyway? Maybe he will be more of a public figure with the release of this film. The movie does look good from the trailer and what I've read so far. Against the Day is probably my favorite book of his and I still haven't finished reading it.

As for Paul Thomas Anderson, I liked The Master and Magnolia, but I couldn't get through There Will Be Blood. Man, Magnolia is good though!

[mudd]

i don't think pynchon will be any more public because of the film. i believe he's getting close to 80 these days.

m

[surfer]

PT Anderson - Inherent Vice (2014)

And so we begin our day with whole octopus ("an animal that decorates its lair and has been observed at complicated play"), which your monger will half, and separate the head and its connective tissue. Throw that on ice before you tenderize the shit out of it with a hammer. Surf check at the Lane, which is a zoo, Middle Peak firing. Cruise along West Cliff, smell the stink of rotting kelp at Mitchell's in the unseasonable heat. Recall the Bigfoot Lodge in the city with its 8ft wooden bear carving http://www.bigfootlodge.com/ Lunch tacos at El Palomar which survived the earthquake, and get pulled into Hoffman's for a pour of absinthe https://www.facebook.com/events/1406568746227113/ by Swedish Seppy. He practically has to yell at you over the Goth band doing Joy Division covers. Apparently the Fang tried to land a pontoon boat north of town at 4-mile beach, but capsized in rising surf and the cargo, 80 pounds of Mexican stinkweed, floated ashore:



http://www.ksbw.com/news/central-califo ... z/22201878

although they didnt capture all of it. Some of it floated down to a place in Beach Flats neighborhood owned by Jose "Xilo" Xilonzochilt whose mother got put away for selling a "pedaso" to an undercover cop with Xilo was out trying to land the pontoon boat.

http://www.ksbw.com/news/central-califo ... n/26370074

Xilo is now being represented by this guy Darst, who, when not engageing in petty acts of surf vandalism (http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/201303 ... leboarders) is a practicing attorney although "It's unclear what type of law he practices." Xilo is apparently hiding out at the Sunny Cove Motel



Off the record, the boat you should be interested in is Escape



owned by a Forrest Hayes who worked for Google's secretive "X" division, and was given a fatal toes over the nose dose of SE Asian heroin by escort Alix Tichelman ("a jew who wants to be a Nazi", BDM etc etc) and may or may not be working for Chick Planet Massage via http://seekingarrangement.com/



see also: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/genera ... santa-cruz

When you are ready to bake your octopus, hack into chunks, oven (peka od hobotnice without the peka) at 275, slow and low for 90 minutes with diced new potates, zucchini, leeks, carrot. Then add white wine take off cover and reduce liquid, test at third round of absinthe. Eat, take some for the nudists at Privates beach, locked gate access, bring card. Go for swim. Fall alseep in the sand knowing you are precious cargo that cant be insured because of, you know.

Chill Out Cafe is open where "We Roll the Fatties" http://www.chilloutcafesantacruz.com/. Get breakfast

[Skuj]

i don't think pynchon will be any more public because of the film. i believe he's getting close to 80 these days.

m

I expect he will be even less public because of the film.