Tag: Thomas Pynchon (page 1 of 1)

13 March 2007 / 6 Comments

Thomas Pynchon: “Against the Day”

There was a time when I read books voraciously. In fact for most of my life I have read at least one book per month, if not week, meaning that if I was to enter a fund-raising read-a-thon I would most most likely send all of my sponsors broke (assuming, of course, that I didn’t just read a whole stack of Mr Men books to make up the numbers). In recent years, I have become increasingly nerdy, to the point where I have begun to list the books I’ve read over a given six month period (see July to December 2005 and January to June 2006). In July 2006, however, something happened to me. Personally, I blame it on the utter chaos that’s characterised my life in the last year or so, rather than the (obviously tempting) reason that I’ve actually read all that I need to read but the fact remains that I went for several months without so much as picking up a book. I didn’t read anything. Well, I read the paper, and so on but I didn’t actually pick up a book. All of that changed, however, last December when I went out and bought a hardcover first edition copy of Thomas Pynchon’s new novel, Against the Day. And now I’m thrilled to announce that last night – that is, three months and 1085 pages later – I finished the damn thing.

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17 June 2004 / 2 Comments

Thomas Pynchon: “Gravity’s Rainbow”

What better way to mark yesterday’s 100th anniversary of Bloomsday than to admit I have never read more than twenty pages of Ulysses, due in no small part to the Leavisite method of critical textual analysis introduced in my first days of undergraduate English. Don’t get me wrong: I respect the man, and having heard several sections of Finnegans Wake read aloud, can vouch for the fact that Joyce was a funny old bugger. Trouble is, the attraction of reading Ulysses has been sullied by the determination of various news outlets to strap onto the whole Bloomsday shenanigans every freaking year. Like clockwork. I propose an anti-Bloomsday as the antidote. Buggered if I know how that would work though.

Anyway, what better way to follow that paragraph than to admit that I recently finished all 758 pages of Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow, a book that someone once said (I’m paraphrasing) made most other books look a little simpleminded. Now, I know people say that Ulysses is, erm, difficult. Seems Pynchon got it into his head that he could go one better and, by the looks of it, the man has succeeded. Parts of Gravity’s Rainbow are truly unreadable. You know that phrase “Don’t go there”? Yeah well, Pynchon goes there. There’s no point trying to describe where he goes. You’ll have to read it yourself. But boy am I pleased with myself that I managed to get through it. I enjoyed most of it. There is some truly classic humour in this book. Then again, there’s some stuff that’s not for the squeamish. For this reason, I find it completely understandable that the book both won and lost the Pulitzer Prize (the panel’s decision to award the prize to Pynchon was overturned on the grounds of obscenity, meaning the Prize was not awarded that year).

The Internet seems the perfect place for discussion of Pynchon, and a variety of websites offer much in the way of explanation and helpful references. Not sure if the Simpsons episode featuring Pynchon has aired in Oz yet. But did I mention meeting Pynchon on a train in the US a couple of years ago? I talk about it here. A poem of mine, entitled “Thomas Pynchon and the Art of Anonymity Maintenence” was recently published in Meanjin. Finally, Thomas Pynchon’s new intro to “1984”. Okay so it’s not that new but I just found it. Wow.

11 October 2002 / 0 Comments

Krueger / Buffalo

I love the sound of the road rules over there. So orderly. It sounds like Kakadu, but also a bit strange … I hope you and your mum aren’t driving each other nuts. Contrary to what I might have let on, I haven’t really been able to catch up with anyone yet – I spoke to Fran which was nice, but all the people I tried to ring weren’t home. Hopefully I will catch up with them next week. Anyway, greetings from Buffalo! I tell you, it is a weird place, to top off a weird day.

I went to a poetry reading in this cool old church in NYC last night, where all these poets got up and spoke about this other poet who’d just died. There were some famous ones there, but it was a bit old school. Still, fun. then I walked home and couldn’t get to sleep till about 3am due to roadworks outside the hostel.

So of course I didn’t wake up till 6.18am (my alarm doesn’t work) and I had to catch a train at 7! So I did this amazing pissbolt where i packed, checked out, caught a cab and got my ticket in about three minutes. Thankfully, I was able to catch my breath and scull an OJ before getting on the train.

The trip was really cool but very long. The train went right alongside the Hudson for about the first half of it, and the “fall foliage” (autumn leaves) was v. nice. Then I noticed this guy sitting across the aisle, who looked disturbingly like … Thomas Pynchon!!

I only thought so cos I’d seen that doco, but it was really spinning me out, the thought that it might be him, so I ummed and ahhed for about an hour and finally asked him something lame, like “do you know any good bookshops in New York?” As it turned out, his name was Jerry. Yeah, right. I could feel a “the night i met Beck” experience coming on but actually he turned out to know the poets I saw last night and was a writer of some kind. Anyway, he recommended some cool bars and bookshops and said to give him a call when I get back to New York. Still think he’s Pynchon though.

I’m staying right in the middle of Buffalo which is like Canberra with huge old art deco buildings everywhere, extremely massive. Apparently it used to be the richest city in the US. I think I’ll stay for a day then shuffle off to Toronto, as it’s only 2 hrs away, on Saturday. I’m hoping to meet this guy at the uni tomorrow and drop off some Cordites as well.

I’m about to go and have … buffalo wings! What else? He he he. I know about the jet lag/ lack of sleep/ slightly sick combo, it really does make you feel weird things. I still think this whole place is surreal. Hopefully I’ll get some clarity when I get to speak to someone about it. At the moment though it’s actually nice to just spend some time on my own. I hope I can stay with this guy in New York when I get back though. I don’t know, I’m a bit old for dorms!!

Anyway, Sean and co will be in New York too, so I’ll have someone to get pissed with. I have bene holding off on that aspect of things thus far, perhaps wisely.

I tried to call before but they couldn’t hear me on the phone. If it’s not too late I’ll call again in a little while, otherwise I’ll call you tomorrow afternoon (your time – I think I’ve figured it out) on that there mobile.

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This is [d/dn], the home of David Prater, a writer and editor currently living in the third person.

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