Writer: Thomas Pynchon

Thomas Pynchon has loomed large for most of my life. I had not read him until prison, when I was past fifty. I have wrestled with him ever since. At the end of this post, I make several points about my reaction, but here I will only suggest reading him when you are younger is the better idea.

 Ninety-Nine Novels: Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

 That is from the International Anthony Burgess Foundation has as much about Burgess as Pynchon - not something I mind, being rather fond of Burgess. Hold onto the last half, even the very ending, where they talk more about the novel and Pynchon's influence. I may have missed Pynchon's playfulness, but then I read him in prison, after a break-down and recovering from years of depression, when playfulness was not really anything I had in me. On the other, I may just not have liked his sense of humor.

This is a bit more frenetic video advocating for Pynchon. Perhaps my Pynchon problem is that I am not enough of an intellectual to appreciate Pynchon.

Not so frenetic as Write Conscious, and maybe that is why I came away feeling better about Gravity's Rainbow:

 Lecture on The Crying of Lot 49 from Yale that helped me understand the Pynchon novel I liked best, and improved my understanding - academic and also promoting the charm of the work.

 Write Conscious approached Pynchon through Martin Amis:

 

Looking back now at my reactions to Pynchon, my problems come down to two things: 1) his concerns had become more widespread by the time I came of age, certainly by the time I hit the mid-century mark, and I found no novelty to Pynchon's treatment of our culture; and 2) my sense of humor differs from Pynchon's. I cannot deny that he is worth reading. The Yale lecturer emphasizes Pynchon's compassion - that I had not seen - and for that reason alone, he needs to be read.

sch 9/30