Pynchon

>>9046174
It's beautifully written, if you missed that, then I feel bad.

Sure, you could talk about how it makes a clever analogy between paranoia/conspiracy theories and trying to find a deeper meaning in the world, and ultimately leaves it ambiguous as to whether the meaning can be found or whether the person trying to find it is just "paranoid". You could say that Oedipa is Ahab and Trystero her Moby Dick. You could say a lot of stuff about the actual theme(s) of the book, but behind it all it's just a beautifully written little book. Talking about the themes is the tritest part, really.

Also, Torquato Tasso.

beautiful prose and eccentric characters. i liked it didnt love it and its the only pynchon ive read so far but plan on reading more of his stuff soon. hes gud anon

>>9046195
(BTW, Mucho Maas being given LSD and Dr. Hilarius is a reference to Project Paperclip and MK-Ultra, actual and terrifying conspiracies, funnily enough. You can Google either of those right now).

I very much enjoyed falling into the postal service conspiracy along with the main character. It was enjoyable to read.

>>9046195
>It's beautifully written

This is actually the part that bothers me the most. So much of the book is so memorable and vivid and engaging, with artistic and creative language that taught me a lot and absolutely was a thrill to read. And then it ends with a scene that's decent but really in comparison pretty run-of-the-mill.

How can someone who wrote so much of a book so well end the whole thing on a kind of bland but ambiguous note? The only I can think of is that the ending is made to make us pay attention to the themes, which, exactly as you say, is really the tritest part. It made me feel like I had to be missing something.

>>9046195
Really though:

>"...had believed... in some principle of the sea as redemption for Southern California (not, of course, for her own section of the state, which seemed to need none), some unvoiced idea that no matter what you did to its edges the true Pacific stayed inviolate and integrated or assumed the ugliness at any edge into some more general truth."

>>9046220
I thought for sure this was written today. I was so surprised when 70 pages in he dates the book with what's now a racial slur.

Transistor radio also should have been a tip-off.

>>9046204
>MKULTRA

But Pynchon wrote his novel before it was revealed to the general public.

>>9046419
Pynchon ain't the general public.

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>>9046419
exactly

I can't get more than like 2 chapters into Lot 49.
I'm reading Gravity's Rainbow right now and it's great, but I just can't give a shit about Lot 49.
I dropped it my 2nd attempt at reading right after she meets Fallopian and he talks about Peter Pinguid for what seems like 20 pages.

>>9046419
It was still a pretty popular conspiracy theory around that time though. Some people have theorised Pynchon may have been involved in it someone (as one of the test subjects perhaps). Unlikely though.

>>9047353
>Unlikely though.

lol, do your homework

>>9046419
>>9047353
>studied engineering physics
>served in the U.S. navy
>attended lecutres given by Nabokov at Cornell
>employed as a technical writer at Boeing in Seattle, where he compiled safety articles for the Bomarc Service News, a support newsletter for the BOMARC surface-to-air missile deployed by the U.S. Air Force
>his FIRST FUCKING NOVEL won the Faulkner award and was finalist for the National Book Award

he had such an active life, it's obvious the guy knew people, he was everywhere, and being such a personage like he was, interested in conspiracy theories, in a time when there was no internet and not everything was easily made public, i'm sure he found some crazy stuff, which if you ask me had an effect in the kind of life he lives now, a "recluse" paranoid and all that?

>>9047376
almost, try again

>>9046195
>muh conspiracy theoriests haha

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I think this painting summarizes Oedipa's situation

>>9047376
Well the award was for notable first novel, so that makes sense.