Happy Birthday, Pynchon
>>25263259
Whoa! Happy birtday to the Pynchmeister! Wrote the greatest novel of all time. Hope we get another one out of him.
>>25263259>I am forgotten
To accept Pynchon as a quality writer is to garb yourself in a coat of hot pockets and video games and then writhe around on the ground in a supermarket while screeching and slapping yourself on the sides of your head.He is cheeto dust. Nothing more.Nothing more than a hack, a useful tool for publishers to trot out to say "Hey, we're making literary fiction!" I cannot wrap my head around the adulation he receives, let alone the wide praise this has got. The book trudges from set piece to set piece, leaves us no real questions or anything to think about really.The same bullet that kills a Foster Wallace fan will also kill the Pynchon and Delillo fan. They come from the same root, from the same doritos stained console. They are frauds, and as a warrior of literature it's my duty to expose the fakes and the inauthentic when I see them. I will fight with crawls and teeth until the last imposter is fallen to the groundI have about as much respect for Thomas Pynchon as I do for the dogshit on my shoe. It is reddit. It is video game hot pocket. It is capeshit. It is cheeto dust. I'm literally screaming right now and slamming my arms down on my desk just thinking about it.It is the most depraved video game infantilized manchild degeneracy. It is saturday morning cartoon. It is non-neurotypicality. It is memes. It is video game. It is tarantino. It is imdb.It is coca-cola puberty. it is axe body spray. it is a white stain on boxer shorts. it is arri alexa hot dog caffeine on disney channel.Pynchon is a miserable hack whose movies are propped up entirely by reddit meme writing which gets the r/literature and r/truelit pleb crowd all hot and bothered. It is the death knell of Literature. One of the biggest trashmasters working today, a hack's hack. This is hot pocket the writer. Cheeto dust: the man.His books are a bad joke; an insult to the literary medium; a gob of spit aimed at all that is good and great about literature. Another polished postmodern gritty popcorn writer.
>>25263259Happz birthdaz mr. Pinecone!!!
>>25263332Better to be forgotten than remembered for the dud that it was
>>25263418It's forgotten, but it will be remembered as a dud.
>>25263332It was fun
>>25263597Unfortunate that all 3 of his last books were pretty mediocre. Better to have gone out on Against the Day even #tho nobody read it. It could have become a posthumous classic
>>25263599So are Brian Sanderson and GRRM
>>25263259thx for the books mister ruggles have a good one
>>25263332It tanked once they reached Budapest
>>25263259Now he looks like my cousin. Just add a moustache
>>25263726Maybe you should stick those writers then, you unread faggot
>>25263984You'll never do the Kenosha kid
>>25263724Shadow Ticket is an Against The Day expansion pack
>>25263259It's fascinating how the Pynchon stock took a nose dive on /lit/ at around the same time he's at his most popular among normies. /lit/ always ahead the curve. Those normie retards don't know they are buying expired goods LMAO.
>>25263259most overrated. no wonder he lives in secrecy
>>25265108that hollywood movie was a big stain on his work, he should sue
>>25265126He didn't quite co-wrote it, but brainstormed ideas for it and approved the script.
>>25265129it sucked and was confusing
>>25263259Unironically, how do we know Pynchon is this uber genius he's sold as? We know for a fact that, unlike Cormac, he doesn't do most of the research for his books himself and pay people for it. He's a good stylist and a smart guy for sure, but literature has more than a few of those people and no one goes WOW THE SMARTEST MAN SINCE OPPENHEIMER! for them as they do with Pynchon. I don't know, man. I feel this guy is just a fine writer that the publishing world knew how to sell as a mythical figure for the kind of people who build their identity around liking obscure things inaccessible for the masses that in fact aren't that obscure nor that inaccessible.
>>25265142You're not wrong. Keep in mind the likes of Bloom only started praising Pynchon in the mid-80s when Pynchon was already involved with Melanie Jackson. It's all a psyop. Pynchon is the Geese of 20th Century literature.
>>25265142>he doesn't do most of the research for his books himselfwhere did you get that from? or are you just memeing
>>25265129Not surprising if true. A lot of good artists embarrassed themselves the last 10 years by turning to the camera, so to speak, and speaking to the audience. "But seriously, Drumpf is a threat to democracy"
>>25265153Around the time Shadow Ticket was announced, perhaps even a little earlier, some credible people in the literary world were speculating on the possible themes the book could touch based on what they knew Pynchon's researchers had been researching. It's also why there are still speculations that Pynchon may have another novel in the chamber, as he had a researcher in France (I think) looking up for things that didn't appear in Shadow Ticket at all. But maybe they just didn't make the cut.
>>25265142>unlike CormacYeah, but to be fair McCarthy was an outlier. Very few writers go as autistic as him on research.
>>25265142>>25265166Genuinely, who cares? Is Shakespeare any lesser of a writer because he purloined his ideas from other writers? Is WvB any less of an organisational genius because he didn't design every nut & bolt himself? Between Terry Davis and Linus Torvalds who's more of a genius?
>>25265214>Is Shakespeare any lesser of a writer because he purloined his ideas from other writers?No, but Shakespeare's reputation as an uber genius stands on the work itself and not on the amount of obscure trivia in them, as it's partially the case with Pynchon.>Between Terry Davis and Linus Torvalds who's more of a genius?I feel this is a trick question, as for what I understand Terry was schizophrenic, but I'm not trans so don't know enough about coding to know the answer.
>>25265214who da fuck is wvb
>>25265223Shakespeare's obscurity certainly contributed to his legend. And just like Tommy he has a few stinkers (Henry VI, most of his early plays).Terry made an entire OS from scratch, himself. 100k+ lines of code. Linus made just a kernel, plus other developers joined him after the initial release.>>25265232Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation. Everything science has taught me, and continues to teach me, strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death.
>>25263270>Wrote the greatest novel of all time.The thing about Pynchon as a novelist, he's one of the few where one could say "That's his greatest novel" and another could say "This is his greatest novel" and there would be legitimate arguments for both (or more).
>>25265251Is this a bit? I feel this is fairly common among great writers. On /lit/ top 100 there are multiple writers with more than one entry.
>>25263259Did a little pynchin today at work to honor the Pynecone. I know he would be proud if he knew. Did you do anything, /lit/'all?
>>25265126>>25265129OBAA is barely an adaptation.
>>25265285I'm about to start V. for the first time :) excited, only my second Pynchon after I read Lot 49 in college
>>25265142Pynchon fans are just disproportionately more retarded than others
>>25265291I love V. Wasn't too keen on Profane chapters, but Stencil ones are great. And the Herero section is a masterpiece.
>>25265251What is(are) his best novel(s)?
>>25265297GR and M&D are the only two that are genuinely brilliant. Let's not kid ourselves. The Crying Lot is a good little book. Maybe Against the Day for the ultra fans who want the double album experience. Everything else goes from just fine to rather bad.
>>25265300I don't know how could you possible call Vineland, Inherent Vice or Bleeding Edge "from just fine to rather bad"
>>25265291>>25265294When I read it for the first time at 19-20, the Stencil chapters were pretty great. The Herero section, Mondaugen's Story, is an absolute masterpiece and I am in continuous awe that a guy in his twenties wrote that: like, seriously, it's that good. As I got older, I grew, and I reread V. in my late-20's and early-30's, and I came to admire how much care he had for Benny and Stencil and their journey. You can tell this is a sensitive young man writing about two guys who are diving head-first into oblivion. It's a young-man's novel, like Saul Bellow's or Hesse's or Miller's, but he opens your mind to the farther reaches of the state of things.>>25265297>>25265300Definitely GR and M&D. GR actually made me realize how much progress we had made from Joyce's Ulysses and the literature that came before it, and the world as we found it when we entered it. M&D was such a fucking good book to read, I still kind of hate/dislike the ending because it feels so...disappointing. It's a book that I recommend reading or rereading in your late 20's or early 30's because it isn't until you can feel mortality's bones that you can start to appreciate the life-and-death, intrigue and mystery of the whole thing. Now that I've gotten older and I've gone through the processes of being married, having kids, watching my parents get older, seen the world become more overwhelmingly complicated, I can actually appreciate the journey M&D take, which isn't something I could say as a selfish and self-centered teenager or 20-something-year-old. It's why rereading is so important,
>>25265332>GR actually made me realize how much progress we had made from Joyce's UlyssesCome on, nigga. Don't get retarded now. Joyce may have been a cuck respecter, but he was an incredibly talented and sensitive writer.
>>25265334>Joyce may have been a cuck respecterKEK don't know why but this made me chuckle
>>25265332>GR actually made me realize how much progress we had made from Joyce's Ulyssesyour kids must be fucking retarded
>>25265332>GR actually made me realize how much progress we had made from Joyce's Ulysses and the literature that came before itPynchon being a favorite of people who could go through the classics but got filtered by them makes a lot of sense.
>>25263259Where should I start with him?
>>25265347V. or 49
>>25265347start with his first novel then go from there
>>25265347Top left to bottom right, then flip the page.
>>25265332GR was proof we had made no progress from Joyce's Ulysses except dialled up to 11 its now tepid, controversial filthy parts.
>>25265142Mccarthy was a genius, you can tell from the way he writes. Pynchon was always a pretender who needed the cushion of obscure references and philosophical parodies to prop himself.
Which translation of A Hero of Our Time should I read? Randall is the cheapest but I know Nabokov did one too
>>25265354Absolute nonsense>>25265300You seem to be right
>>25265241>Linus just made a kernelNot to throw this thread off topic, but how is making a kernel not an impressive feat?
>>25265669Breast Terry Davis made an entire OS
>>25265142Have you read GR?
What is it about Tommy that causes do much seethe? Is it just salty Birchers?
>>25265868It's mostly that one anon who keeps posting Gaddis and Pynchon threads to "take them down". He keeps getting owned in arguments everytime I come across his threads or posts. Also that anon doesn't come across as someone very knowledgeable about literature. I guess the anger comes from a sense of inferiority.
>>25265396Kek his philosophy is juvenile and anyone with a natural feel for rhythm can string words together the way he does
>>25265676Yes, Temple OS is genius, but is an entire kernel not equally as impressive for one guy to manage alone?
>>25266015TempleOS is like 100k lines of code, the original Linux kernel is like 10k. Of course these days Linux is like 30 million LoC or some other retarded number, but Linus didn't write that alone, he coordinated other devs. And the Linux kernel is infinitely more useful than TempleOS; the former runs most of the world's servers, while the latter is nothing more than curiosity.Which brings us back to Pynchon using researchers instead of doing his own research. He's still the one compiling it, reimagining it, the one responsible for the book's style and structure.
>>25266030templeos was a toy os like u would make in an operating systems class in grad school etc. it had no security whatsoever, everything ran in ring zero, it's trash.
>>25266003Better be talking about pynchon
>>25266003>anyone with a natural feel for rhythm can string words together the way he doesYet your precious pynchud doesn't even approach him
>>25266003Pynchon's philosophy is indistinguishable from an MSNBC libtard boomer
>>25265487
Happy belated birthday Thomas Pynchon>>25266082An MSNBC libtard boomer would have written GR like a made-for-TV Holocaust movie. Pynchon's politics are groyper-adjacent.>>25265332>GR actually made me realize how much progress we had made from Joyce's Ulysses and the literature that came before it, and the world as we found it when we entered it.Huh? How much progress we had made from the world as we found it when we entered it? Bro you were crazy to say that about Ulysses but I can't figure out what you mean here
>>25265868Most of the hardcore Pynchon shills left the board and migrated to /r/tuelit. But beyond that I feel the reason why Pynchon is getting revalued here is because despite being old as fuck Pynchon has finally found his historic place as a voice for the literati side of the current managerial class who really connects with his sensitivity and sees him almost as a prophet who got everything right. This obviously will get pushback from a lot of people who think that Pynchon is fundamentally a 20th century writer who on the surface touched on a lot of topics that are relevant now but his work has aged and doesn't capture the spirit of the current zeitgeist at all.>>25265923I don't come here very often anymore, but last time I saw an anti-Pynchon thread, perhaps a couple months ago, it ended with the Pynchon anons who weren't completely sold on Pynchon sharing some very insightful opinions on Ulysses while the Pynchon shills were sperging about anons getting Pynched.
>>25267610>Pynchon's politics are groyper-adjacentWhy do some people try so hard to paint Pynchon as some Straussian reactionary subtly leaving red pills for his readers when he has talked openly about his politics and is a self confessed feminist who regrets not having been more sensitive to minorities in his early work.
>>25267625lolno
>>25267625This. If someone ever tells you something along the lines that woke media should be blamed on capitalists who were simply trying to make money from the new hip thing and they didn't believe in it at all (despite tanking a few franchises), or that Occupy Wall Street failed because billionaires brainwashed people with identity politics to make them infight and forget about class struggle but then they contort themselves to defend trans rights and BLM and feminism and whatnot, or to show you how well versed they are in what is really going on they tell you that Epstein created and controlled /pol/ because he met with Moot once around the time (after /pol/ was launched and ignoring that anons themselves to had been demanding it for a while to clear the other boards from politics), then you know you can recommend them Pynchon and they will love him, if they aren't already fans. He really appeals to people who are into these lame pseudo-conspiracies that are plausible but when looked up closer are completely divorced from reality and actually reinforce the neo puritanical status quo they really think they are defying by reading a book where the Power That Be are almost demonic beings who literally eat shit.
>>25267683>strawman
>>25267683>He really appeals to people who are into these lame pseudo-conspiracies that are plausible but when looked up closer are completely divorced from reality and actually reinforce the neo puritanical status quo they really think they are defying by reading a book where the Power That Be are almost demonic beings who literally eat shit.You seem to have badly misread Brigadier Pudding. Pynchon has it out for the English in that scene, not some vaguely-defined "Powers That Be."
>>25265251others that come to mind:Dostoyevsky Shakespeare (not a novelist I know)Nietzsche (again yes I know)McCarthyFaulknerHemingwayDeLillo Twain, maybe?
>>25267633>he has talked openly about his politicsWhen?
>>25267803>Twain, maybe?What's the case against Huck?
>>25267811intro to Slow Learner, his article A Journey Into The Mind of Watts. he's some variety of protowoke socialist, but anything beyond that's hard to pin down
>>25267610>An MSNBC libtard boomer would have written GR like a made-for-TV Holocaust movieYeah not like he made the big bad Nazi guy a BDSM fetishist with an irrational death drive that likes eating literal shit, that's so far from what an MSNBC boomer would come up with
>>25265142>how do we know Pynchon is this uber genius he's sold asSIGINT in WW2. Gravity's Homo has a lot of German Wonder Weapons familiarity that wouldn't otherwise be common knowledge until late in the century. He has egghead bona fides via Cornell, if nothing else.
>>25265341>Pynchon being a favorite of people who could go through the classics but got filtered by them makes a lot of sense.Literary killshot.
>>25267803>DostoyevskyEveryone knows it's TBK. I know some people champion Demons, but I thought it was awful.Tolstoy may have a claim with W&P and AK, but I wasn't particularly taken with either.I'd say Nabby and Corncob definitely count. Maybe James and Conrad. Mann has like 3, maybe 4 novels that can all be considered his best.
>>25267907>"He has talked openly about his politics">"When in particular?">"Oh you know just... In general. He's hard to pin down."Ok? your position appears to be disintegrating.>>25267973You seem like you probably haven't read it
