| Author | Message | ||
     Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 212.219.233.223 |
Yesterday I had the great good fortune to pick up a copy of Thomas Pynchon's mammoth novel AGAINST THE DAY for 30p in a library booksale. The opening chapter is superb: a spoof of "Boys' Own Adventure" pulp novels, as the 'Chums of Chance' fly to Chicago on an airship. Anybody else already read this book? I love Pynchon but because my budget's so limited I didn't think I'd get to own my own copy of this massive hardback. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
I share your enthusiasm for the author but haven't yet invested in this book. Keep us posted, Rhys! | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.0.114.254 |
I read V and was eminently puzzled the whole way through. The chapter on dentistry was crackerloopey. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.246.35 |
I've not yet ventured into Pynchon. I figure I'll give him another 50 years to see if the consensus on him is still solid. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.0.114.254 |
I eat only weeks-old fruit on the same principle: by that time, the rot has been proven to be natural. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.246.35 |
Do you say in time Pynchon will have proved to have rotted, Gary?... and that his freshness is only now, while he IS fresh?... | ||
| Nathaniel Tapley (Natt) Username: Natt Registered: 11-2009 Posted From: 89.240.59.35 |
I got it for 50p outside my library a couple of months ago, and am looking forward to it immensely (I'm a huge fan of Gravity's Rainbow). However, I'm currently working my way through the enormous copy of Anathem I got for 50p a couple of weeks later... | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.161.146 |
Hi Rhys. Good to see you here. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.159.146.233 |
I bought AGAINST THE DAY new and at full price. | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 212.219.233.223 |
Hello everyone! I'm delighted to find so many Pynchon fans here. I did fear that his name might just elict scowls... Very pleased to learn that Ramsey Campbell is a Pynchon fan (and recently he expressed his admiration for Borges and Jack Vance too. Excellent!) Sorry to hear that Des bought the hardback at full price. I do feel guilty when I pick up expensive books for a pittance at library sales. But this sense of guilt doesn't restrain me in the slightest. Joel: Nice to see you too! Nathaniel: 50p seems a tad expensive. :-) Craig: 50 years seems a tad long. :-) Gary: I read Pynchon's "V" when I was 19 and it blew me away and completely changed my attitude to fiction. For one thing, this was the first novel I'd ever encountered where lots of things happened at the same time... and the antics of the Whole Sick Crew were similar to the antics of the people I hung around with back then... and the mix of highly crafted prose and engineering principles! Sublime and astounding! Anyway, I do realise that Pynchon can be daunting at times. Reading MASON & DIXON was like getting to the top of a mountain: bloody exhausting but worth it for the ultimate view. I expected that AGAINST THE DAY was going to be another hard but worthwhile slog. But it's light! It flows smoothly and easily. The first few chapters are a wonderful spoof on writers such as Edward S. Ellis. Hilarious... | ||
| Tom_alaerts (Tom_alaerts) Username: Tom_alaerts Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.78.35.185 |
There was always this amusing rumour that Thomas Pynchon and JD Salinger were in fact the same person... something I never believed! | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.159.146.233 |
Ambrose Bierce and J.L. Borges, too (according to Bigid Brophy). BTW, I've heard Thomas Pynchon is a lurker on this forum. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.159.146.233 |
Brigid Brophy. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
Rumours have had it that I'm Clive Barker and Poppy Z. Brite (not that I would be unhappy to have written their work!) | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
There is a rumour that Gary McMahon is really Gary Fry in drag... | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
And if there isn't really, there should be... | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.76.229 |
There's a rumour that Weber Gregston really is Weber Gregston - unlike the Gervais/Brent pairing, this isn't an act. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
That's not a rumour | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 212.219.233.223 |
The great William Gaddis was another writer that some people claimed was Thomas Pynchon in disguise. And Gaddis himself was often rumoured to be a pseudonym for William Gass! So why hasn't Pynchon been rumbled as actually being John Barth yet? MASON & DIXON is almost a perfect surrogate for THE SOT-WEED FACTOR... That's my best guess. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.159.146.233 |
We are all each other, perhaps. | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.236.160.167 |
Back again after awhile . . . lots of work etc. I love GR and V in college. "Vineland" I thought less of, and I haven't gotten around to M&D or ATD. I am proud to say that my non-reading 17-year-old nephew made it through the "Crying of Lot 49" as part of a modern lit course he had to take at his high school. He *hated* it . . . but at least he gave it a shot! PS: I must also shoot down those rumors that I am Thomas Pynchon, because of my first name. PPS: I have also heard that if you hang around in New York literary circles long enough and attend enough parties, you may very well find yourself in the same room with him. Allegedly, he is quite friendly, so long as you're not from the news media. | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.236.160.167 |
Des: It has just struck me: if there are rumors that TP is a lurker on this forum, than that would lead to a rumor that he is a fan of the landlord. Does anyone know if this a True Fact Worthy of "Gosh-Wow!", or an incident of Extremity-Pulling, Worthy of "Ha! You'll believe anything!" (Like "J.D. Salinger was *actually* the secret father of Dan Brown!") | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.249.6 |
Thomasb's very asking this, coupled with his deliberately sloppily-hid name, clearly makes Thomasb the prime candidate for being Thomas Pynchon. If not... we're going to have to administer a series of tests like they did in John Carpenter's THE THING to determine who the real Thomas Pynchon is....  | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 212.219.233.223 |
Although it has been many years since I watched John Carpenter's THE THING, and my memory's not quite what it used to be, I'm fairly sure it didn't contain a scene where Thomas Pynchon was tested. I don't think he was in the film at all, was he?  | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.236.160.167 |
I'm extremely flattered. I shall now present evidence to support such a notion. 1) Thomasb was born in Peekskill, New York; Thomasp was born in Glen Cove, Long Island, New York. Coincidence or . . . serendipity? 2) Thomasb: born Oct. 23, 1954; Thomasp; born May 8, 1937; random entropic event or . . . preterite manifestation? 3) Thomasb is a Lee Van Cleef fan; Thomasp mentions Lee Van Cleef in his latest novel (or so I hear); mystical connection or . . . paranoid notation pattern? What more proof do you need that I am thomasp and NOT thomasb, eh? |