Damn, I should have become a Fed. I would have found my Latina Frenesi.In seriousness, just finished reading this, and loved it. The ending is a bit sudden, like some other Pynchon I've read, but maybe that's the point, to reflect the political whims of the Federal Government and the power and effect this capricious, bureaucratic decision-making has over American lives.
>>25469737>go into it expecting to hate it>get Kill Bill: book editionIt's still my least favourite Pynch so far, but I liked the increased focus on character psychology and that it felt more 'human' compared to his previous output.
>>25470161I liked it a lot. Much more than Shadow Ticket and Crying of the Lot. Haven't read Inherent Vice yet. It might even edge out Bleeding Edge for me. V. I'm not sure where I stand, back when I read it I was doing a lot of drugs and I didn't quite get Pynchon yet, so I no doubt missed out on appreciating a lot of it, not to mention misunderstood probably a good part of it. I should reread it.
bump, I know a lot of /lit/ has read this, and I'm happy to hear any thoughts on the novel in general.
i would have enjoyed vineland way more if the copy i read had that cover instead of that shitty one with the black and white pic of a bunch of chopped trees or whatever. op's cover makes it look full of fun and zany romp through nostalgic americana. the cover with the dead trees just makes it look like some melancholy harangue.
>>25470645The copy I read had the latter cover you described. I feel you.
Im in the last 100 pages. Its my third pynchon and can already tell this one is my least favourite. But holly shit this is hilarious, that whole chapter with Takeshi in the godzilla footprint leading to a mortal orgasm with DL... Then freaking ninja nuns with a cooking problem solved by an adolescent... Freakin robot birds with cameras as eyes... everywhere.
>>25470723>Its my third pynchon and can already tell this one is my least favourite.May I ask why?It seems no one else loved it as much as me :(I haven't read GR and M&D yet. Is it because it isn't as serious and metaphysical as V., which I assume GR and M&D also are?
>>25469737I’m about to finish AtD and I have to say I don’t think I like it as much as general consensus would have lead me to believe. I loved GR, IV, CoL49, liked Vineland and Shadow Ticket. I really want to ready M&D next but I’m worried I’m maybe outgrowing Pynch? Is M&D potentially more disappointing if I didn’t like AtD?
>>25471541I swear everyone on /lit/ enjoyed Shadow Ticket but me. I did not get it at all.
>>25471560Honestly it was his weakest that I’ve read. I mean there is enough for AtD to put it above ST but if this is what some consider his magnum opus, then I definitely missed something
>>25471573Sadly my librarty doesn't have AtD so I won't get to that for a while. In any case, it seems people all have different favorites from him, so I wouldn't fret. If it doesn't connect with you, then no biggie, as some of his other books already have.
>>25471541I can't imagine liking Shadow Ticket but not Mason & Dixon. To be honest I don't really know what people see in Shadow Ticket, other readers have said that they had fun with it, but I just thought it was kinda disappointingly boring for a Pynchon novel.
>>25471585>but I just thought it was kinda disappointingly boring for a Pynchon novel.Perhaps just wishful thinking but I would not be shocked if it later turned out Pynchon himself didn't even write it.
>>25471585dude he's like 90 it wasn't going to be good
What do you think Pynchon is doing right now?
>>25471374I didn`t finished yet, maybe today or tomorrow. But my issue is the hippie dinamyc. Well, im not american and i get boring with it. Its kinda nice to see an idiotic romantic version of if but its not my cup of tea. I really dig the funny erotic sketches side of Pynchon. Thas why i love GR and BE. Its not like you "you have to be american to like hippie things" though. Really funny overall, just not my favourite.
>>25472250I'm shitposting on /lit/ right now ZOINKS!
>>25469737The scene where Frenesi is in bed with Brock at a hotel overlooking the overcast sea is one of the most lucid and poignant moments in all of fiction. It feels so desolate and tragic.
>>25473112Yeah that's one of the other things I really liked about it, is for all the irony, cartoonisms, jokes, and outright magic, Vineland is full of Pynchon at his most straightforwardly emotional and human.
