"The Crying of Lot 49" by Thomas Pynchon

>>7819478
just read it faggot, how the fuck could anyone know if you would enjoy it

>>7819478
>Kurt Vonnegut's
Kill self lmao @u

>>7819483
You are supposed to make comparisons between Kurt Vonnegut's novels and this one, I didn't name my interest in him for no reason. Also you can see if satire and black comedy is a variable in the novel of discussion.

more like Crying a Lot for 49 hours desu

>>7819487
or YOU can do it, faggot. nobody here has access to your tiny brain to discern whether it is developed enough to comprehend pinny.

This is, pound for pound, probably my favorite book ever. I've read it some dozen times and it is extremely fucking dense.

It's not very Vonnegutlike, but Pynchon is no Barth, I wouldn't call Lot 49 "academic" by any means. It's really a unique sort of storytelling and humor.

Yeah it's a good intro to Pynchon. It's not too complex if you read carefully and realize that Pynchon is trying to confuse you at points.

>>7819495
I haven't read it, difficult to make comparisons between an unkown and known.
>>7819498
Thanks, would you say that Pynchon's ideas and way of writing is "unique"? Could you compare him to someone else?
>>7819499
Thank you, I was very happy to see that it was about 200 pages because I'd like to finish my books in one stretch and I don't have time for 500+ page books because of uni.

>>7819487
Oh shut please for heaven's sake...just read it

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>>7819478
Making a new thread for your small question is very unsportsmanlike.

>>7819506
Hehe, sorry I had a thread up and accidentally posted in it instead.

>>7819511
>>7819511
no you fucking bitch, you don't come to /lit/ and *rolls up sleeves* make a FUCKING thread about whether or not you should read a novel you haven't even *spits out toothpick* researched. im tired of this fucking bullshit, read a book if you're interested but using /lit/ like google *presses all the keys on the keyboard making the beep noise* lowers the quality and makes us all look like asses

>>7819531
Okay.

http://oyc.yale.edu/english/engl-291/lecture-12

I really enjoyed this video after reading, this professor's whole course is p good

>>7819503
Hugely influenced by Fitzgerald and Kerouac on a prose level, his narrative voice swings between all-knowing joker and loose self-aware vernacular. (not so much the latter in Lot 49)

Thematically he's mostly concerned with the social politics of 1950's/60's America and explores them through the various scientific, psychological, and sociological ideas people had at the time. There is also a very neo-luddite/anarcho-primitivist fear and skepticism underpinning everything.

His sense of humor is often called 'satire' but that sounds somehow too mean. Pynchon seems to love all his characters, even the real assholes. There's a humanism to his writing. More often than not the real 'villain' is an abstract system the lot of us don't realize we're participating in. His situational humor is somewhere between Kafka's dream-anxiety, Monty Python's absurdism, and real lowbrow sitcom dialogue and Chaplin slapstick.

His plots are usually very laid back wild goose chases and pseudo-detective stories that become picaresque adventures all about the silly situations and characters met along the way. They're all pretty loose and impressionistic and in the end don't so much matter or entirely come together, however they always make their own murky kind of poetic sense. Poetic is a good word there, because as some critics have argued, his books have more in common with poetry than the typical novels. He is showing you the elements of Americana, conscious and unconscious, pointing you in one direction but never exactly telling you what to make of them.

>>7819541
>http://oyc.yale.edu/english/engl-291/lecture-12
dat androgynous face :'}

>>7819559
I want her to read me my bedtime stories

>>7819547
Thank you for this description.

I'm halfway though Crying Lot and I'm not enjoying myself. I don't like the setting and the prose bores me, although there are some bits that cracked me up.

Are other Pynchon any different than his first book? I have M&D, GR and Bleeding Edge sitting on my bookshelve, I'd rather read those because their premise is more intriguing. Long books don't intimidate and I started with the Crying Lot because I've been told it's a good introduction

>>7819588
The obvious answer is Gravity's Rainbow. You should know going in that the first 200 pages are the hardest to get through, but it's pretty much smooth sailing after that.

>>7819478
It's not complex, let alone academic. There are some undergrad level STEM references that might fly over your head, the setting is bizarre/absurdist, but the novel is ultimately hilarious.

Besides, it's only like 100 pages; just go ahead and read it.

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>>7819478
>Is this novel any interesting

>>7819588
GR and Lot 49 are stylistic siblings, though GR takes everything Lot 49 does to a greater extreme.
Mason & Dixon is a very different book, more mature in content, and tighter in form, also in the mock style of an 18th century novel.

Although if you're reading for plot and getting bored halfway through Lot 49 (come on it's so fucking short) I can almost guarantee no other Pynchon is going to do much more for you.

>>7819478
vonnegut is better

>>7819635
Since Vonnegut has sentimental value to me it will always be better than any other.
>>7819624
Great! I love absurdist settings, it is about 200 pages and yes, I think I will go read it.

desu sound like a phillistine for saying it but the best comparison is a coen brothers movie written by an english majjor

>>7819664
Pynchon's humor is too low brow for Coens

>More correctly, would it be interesting for me?

No.

1. There are no explosions.

2. There are no proper car chase scenes.

3. There are no space aliens.

That said, there are a few suggestions Pynchon makes for improving the world. These are worth some consideration. The two best would be:

1. An idealization of a client/attorney relationships.

2. A veritable instruction manual for going postal, right and proper.

All and all the rest is just a postmodern mojo fest.

>>7819714
well I certainly hope you feel better after typing that

>>7819714
>1. There are no explosions.
>2. There are no proper car chase scenes.
>3. There are no space aliens.
BOOOORIIIING
good thing gravity's rainbow, against the day, inherent vice, bleeding edge, vineland, and mason and dixon all have at least 2/3

>>7819719

Almost.

I'm just waiting for a *cringe* comment, and I'll be on my merry way ...

I read this a week or two ago. I think what people generally recommend when reading Pynchon is true. You just need to read through it instead of getting caught up in trying to understand everything. Otherwise you end up like one of his paranoid characters on a futile quest for meaning. Read it lightheartedly, and enjoy it.

>>7819547
Not gonna mention Barth?