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InvisiblePGF
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Registered: 07/20/00
Posts: 8,642
Loc: Malaysia
Thomas Pynchon: Vineland
    #630092 - 05/14/02 07:43 AM (21 years, 10 months ago)

Buy here New $8.50 and Used for only $1.25!!!!!

Only a buck and a quarter!!!!

Another suggestion.

I have a soft spot for Pynchon. Most of my thesis examind his works.

He is, afterall, one of the 20th century's BEST writers, if not THE BEST.
If you've enver read Pynchon, this is a great book to start you on your journey.

Vineland is one of his shorter novels and a bit easier to read than "V" or "Gravity's rainbow".

Here's a MIT review.
Vineland retains Pynchon's sense of the absurd

Vineland retains Pynchon's sense of the absurd

VINELAND
By Thomas Pynchon.
Little, Brown & Company.
385 pp., $19.95.
By MARK WEBSTER

LONG TIME FANS OF Thomas Pynchon may be disappointed at first with his new novel, Vineland. He doesn't seem to have that viciously sharp edge that was on display in his masterpiece, Gravity's Rainbow. The virtuosity in the perfectly controlled chaos that Rainbow invoked left one's mouth watering for more.

The author has spread his small but masterful body of work over most of this half century (V. and The Crying of Lot 49 are his other novels). His themes of paranoia, conspiracy, and the life of the counterculture have been hallmarks in an era that seems to personify those themes, to the extent that the question of which inspired which becomes problematic. These concerns, plus 17 years of anticipation, may have produced impossibly high expectations. However, after these outside distractions are forgotten, Pynchon draws you in with his outrageous characters, situations, and unique style.

The book begins with Zoyd Wheeler and his 15-year-old daughter Prairie who live in Vineland, a northern California town. Mainly, they mind their own business, except for Zoyd's annual act of televised insanity (he jumps through a window) for which he receives a monthly disability check from the federal government.

Their laid-back existence in this most laid-back part of the world is shattered by the appearance of past nemesis Brock Vond, FBI agent extraordinaire. It seems that back in the 60s, Brock had a mysterious connection with Zoyd's former wife and Prairie's mother (whom Prairie hasn't seen since infancy), Frenesi Gates. Frenesi exists in the no-man's land of the federal witness protection program for former informers. However, the Reagan administration's cutbacks have left Frenesi and her new family high and dry. And Brock wants Frenesi back again.

Accompanying these characters are a new version of Pynchon's "Whole Sick Crew." There's Prairie's boyfriend Isaiah Two Four (it's a verse in the Bible, look it up), who is a drummer for a punk band called Billy Barf and the Vomitones. There's DL Chastain, a sort of killer Ninja feminist, and Takeshi Fumimota, karmic adjustor, who are linked through the Vibrating Palm Death Touch, which kills its victims a year after it is applied. Then there are the Thanatoids, sort of the living dead with buying power. Pynchon tells these characters' stories in hallucinogenic flashbacks to the 60s and beyond, tracing Frenesi's leftist roots back to her parents and the heyday of unions in the 30s. In the 60s, Zoyd was a surf bum/sometime dope dealer, and Frenesi was an avant-garde documentary film maker who chronicled the protest movement.

The paranoia and conspiracy themes, as in Pynchon's previous novels, are here again but somewhat muted. A nameless, faceless menace no longer hovers somewhere just out of view, controlling events and people for unknown and vaguely sinister reasons. The villains are known and quite familiar: the federal government. Pynchon's hilarious sense of the absurd remains intact. He is a master of taking everyday situations and events and giving that slight twist that reveals the absurdity beneath the surface.

The Tube is ubiquitous. Life is defined, framed, imitated, and irradiated by the Tube. Movie and TV show titles have dates next to them as if they were references for the story. Pynchon can pack more historical, literary, scientific, and entertainment references into a single sentence than anyone.

The tone of Vineland is softer, more conciliatory than in past works. There is a hopeful sense of coming together that contrasts with the apocalyptic Gravity's Rainbow. Could the years be mellowing Pynchon? No matter, his talents remain sharp, and it's good to hear from the master of the absurd again.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1990 by The Tech. All rights reserved.
This story was originally published on Friday, March 23, 1990.
Volume 110, Number 15
The story was printed on page 8.
This article may be freely distributed electronically, provided it is distributed in its entirety and includes this notice, but may not be reprinted without the express written permission of The Tech. Write to archive@the-tech.mit.edu for additional details.


I'll post an Amazon link to purchase.


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***The Real Shroomery nigger

Edited by PGF (05/14/02 07:50 AM)

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Invisiblebivalve
Stranger
Registered: 07/21/00
Posts: 3,121
Re: Thomas Pynchon: Vineland [Re: PGF]
    #630236 - 05/14/02 08:58 AM (21 years, 10 months ago)

It's kind of not like the other ones. It's different.
It's like some different thing. I read it. And I read
The Crying of Lot 49 and I read the stories and
I started reading another one of the novels and
I think it was Gravity's Rainbow. But Vineland
was all different. It was like a Douglas Coupland
book. It really was. At least the last books he's
written. It really was.

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InvisibleSenor_Doobie
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Registered: 08/11/99
Posts: 22,678
Loc: Trump Train
Re: Thomas Pynchon: Vineland [Re: bivalve]
    #630510 - 05/14/02 12:45 PM (21 years, 10 months ago)

Was it good biv? Do you think it'd make a good book for our purposes?

Sounds intriguing to me.


--------------------
"America: Fuck yeah!" -- Alexthegreat

“Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day.”  -- Thomas Jefferson

The greatest sin of mankind is ignorance.

The press takes [Trump] literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally. --Salena Zeto (9/23/16)

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OfflineAnnoA
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Post deleted by Anno [Re: PGF]
    #630518 - 05/14/02 12:50 PM (21 years, 10 months ago)


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InvisibleSenor_Doobie
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Posts: 22,678
Loc: Trump Train
Re: Thomas Pynchon: Vineland [Re: ]
    #630545 - 05/14/02 01:20 PM (21 years, 10 months ago)

Well Jeez, if everyone's read it :P


--------------------
"America: Fuck yeah!" -- Alexthegreat

“Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day.”  -- Thomas Jefferson

The greatest sin of mankind is ignorance.

The press takes [Trump] literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally. --Salena Zeto (9/23/16)

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Invisiblebivalve
Stranger
Registered: 07/21/00
Posts: 3,121
Re: Thomas Pynchon: Vineland [Re: Senor_Doobie]
    #630570 - 05/14/02 01:47 PM (21 years, 10 months ago)

It was good. And it might be good for your
thing. It was a pretty straight-forward sort
of book. And it's from the last twenty years.

It has drugs in it too.

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InvisiblePGF
square

Registered: 07/20/00
Posts: 8,642
Loc: Malaysia
Re: Thomas Pynchon: Vineland [Re: bivalve]
    #630599 - 05/14/02 02:19 PM (21 years, 10 months ago)

But Bivalve, would it be better for us than Stephen King?

And, why in God's name have you not recommended anything yet?


--------------------
***The Real Shroomery nigger

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InvisiblePynchon
Slow Learner

Registered: 04/28/01
Posts: 578
Loc: New Zealand
Re: Thomas Pynchon: Vineland [Re: PGF]
    #630932 - 05/14/02 07:22 PM (21 years, 10 months ago)

Vineland was the first Pynchon book I read. Definetly easier on the noggin than GR but still a proper Pynchon novel, unlike Lot 49, from what I remember. Probably the best place to start for people curious about his writing.

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Offlinezepphead
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Registered: 05/10/02
Posts: 78
Loc: fort worth, tx
Last seen: 21 years, 7 months
Re: Thomas Pynchon: Vineland [Re: Pynchon]
    #630979 - 05/14/02 08:39 PM (21 years, 10 months ago)

i started gravity's rainbow once and for reasons unknown or forgotten to me i put it down somewhere in the middle. i liked pynchon's style and would definately be interested in reading vineland.


--------------------
------------------------
anybody seen the bridge?

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InvisiblePGF
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Registered: 07/20/00
Posts: 8,642
Loc: Malaysia
Re: Thomas Pynchon: Vineland [Re: zepphead]
    #631013 - 05/14/02 09:23 PM (21 years, 10 months ago)

danke'. It will be much much easier than GV or Lot for that matter. Give it a chance, thanks.


--------------------
***The Real Shroomery nigger

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Invisibleoscill8
*bondage fairy*
Registered: 02/26/01
Posts: 1,215
Re: Thomas Pynchon: Vineland [Re: PGF]
    #631134 - 05/15/02 01:33 AM (21 years, 10 months ago)

ive read crying, but not this... im up for it.

is that how we "vote"?


--------------------
? oscill8 2001, 2002
"Any data submitted to Shroomery.org becomes our property"

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InvisiblePGF
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Registered: 07/20/00
Posts: 8,642
Loc: Malaysia
Re: Thomas Pynchon: Vineland [Re: oscill8]
    #631331 - 05/15/02 06:50 AM (21 years, 10 months ago)

I'm not sure how we vote.......

Doobie said he was going to come up with a system.

I guess in the next few days we'll have some idea of how tihs is going to work....


--------------------
***The Real Shroomery nigger

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OfflineAnnoA
Experimenter
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Post deleted by Anno [Re: PGF]
    #631554 - 05/15/02 10:40 AM (21 years, 10 months ago)


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OfflineBuzzDoctor
Runs withscissors
Male

Registered: 08/10/99
Posts: 948
Loc: Atlantis
Last seen: 6 years, 6 months
Re: Thomas Pynchon: Vineland [Re: ]
    #648138 - 05/27/02 02:36 PM (21 years, 10 months ago)

I'm glad to see this as a new extension of the shroomery! I'd like to participate too.
What version of the book is everyone reading? It appears that the one Amazon is selling is the 1997 paperback so that's the one I'll get if that's what everyone else has. I agree with PGF about having the same edition if at all possible.
Are the discussions going to be limited to a particular forum or chat as well?

Buzz


--------------------
Is the glass half-full or half-empty? I say it is both.

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InvisibleSenor_Doobie
Snake Pit Champion
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Registered: 08/11/99
Posts: 22,678
Loc: Trump Train
Re: Thomas Pynchon: Vineland [Re: BuzzDoctor]
    #648387 - 05/27/02 05:01 PM (21 years, 10 months ago)

#bookclub on the Shroomery's server will have a discussion or two. And in this forum of course.

If that's the Amazon edition, that's the edition.

And, one more thing shit what was I gonna say..Oh yeah, June 20th.


--------------------
"America: Fuck yeah!" -- Alexthegreat

“Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day.”  -- Thomas Jefferson

The greatest sin of mankind is ignorance.

The press takes [Trump] literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally. --Salena Zeto (9/23/16)

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
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