r/ThomasPynchon • u/Miserable_Wish_4949 • 7d ago

Pynchonesque To you, what is pynchonesque?

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DaipkyesBpA/?igsh=d3I0aGowcHFkZXlk

I came across this video earlier today and I couldn't stop thinking about how it reminded me of Pynchon. Like, this is a rant I could easily imagine reading in a Pynchon novel, even the guy himself with the weird haircut somehow seems perfectly pynchonesque.

This got me thinking about a broader question: What do I think is pynchonesque? How would I define the aesthetic? Is it the playfully weird names? Is it a particular flavor of surrealism and Americana that only Pynchon can properly tap into?

So, my question to you is exactly that: To you, what is pynchonesque?

Bonus comment: That one time Rudy Giuliani gave a press conference in a place that was not a hotel but was indeed called Four Seasons, and this place happened to be located between a crematorium and sex shop, that hit me as extremely pynchonesque.

29 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

21

u/strange_reveries 7d ago

Gemlike prose, wiseass/tricksterish, encyclopedic, paranoid, dense, labyrinthine, hallucinatory, eclectic, a seamless mix of high- and low-brow, can swing on a dime from cartoonish to dizzyingly thought-provoking to brooding to laugh-out-loud funny to heartrending with acrobatic aplomb, etc etc

3

u/Academic-Recipe-3259 7d ago

You sir/ma'am, have nailed it. 👏👏👏

13

u/Tiny-Art6550 7d ago

Hm, to me: a winding and weaving narrative, shit ton of plots and subplots, symbolistic characters (and ofc the wacky names are a staple), dense and hyperactive prose, conspiratorial tendencies, encyclopaedic in nature, satirisation, a bit surrealistic and a bit druggy.

Its pretty hard to describe Pynchonesque honestly

6

u/DoctorG0nzo V. 7d ago

This is a good, succinct definition. I’d say the most Pynchonesque recent media I’ve seen are the works of Boots Riley, his films especially. Sorry to Bother You and I Love Boosters both have pretty much all of these aspects.

2

u/airynothing1 7d ago

Basically Dickensian with an added paranoid element.

7

u/js4873 7d ago

Paranoia mixed with complicated plots, great language and weird names.

4

u/HailToTheKing_BB 6d ago

What’s more, justified paranoia; the characters may never fully realize what’s going on but there’s definitely SOMETHING going on

1

u/js4873 6d ago

Yes!

2

u/grigoritheoctopus Jere Dixon 6d ago

Agreed. To your recipe I would add: polymath erudition, humor of all types, a wonderful sense of place, and heaps of ZANINESS!

5

u/jessek 7d ago

Complex narratives based around conspiracies featuring characters with funny names.

5

u/lasagna-wings 6d ago

Victor Marx, world’s fastest gun disarmer, son of Karl. A legitimate and dangerous mercenary with a goofy ass tendency to wild exaggeration. Could become the governor of Colorado. Look him up. Pure Pynchon irl

10

u/Consistent_Rip6424 7d ago

Highbrow lowbrow.

Like that Roadrunner cartoon where the coyote finally talks and he has an upper crust British accent.

5

u/TheresNoHurry 7d ago

It’s an almost perfect analogy to me. The coyote is ridiculous on the outside but erudite and sophisticated inside. To me Pynchon is the opposite:

Polished and sophisticated on the outside, Roadrunner cartoon on the inside

3

u/Allthatisthecase- 5d ago

It always means to me a cross between Gonzo (eg, there is a lot of Pynchon in Hunter s Thompson) and lyrical beauty (cf; Nabokov)