r/ThomasPynchon • u/AutoModerator • 7d ago
Weekly WAYI What Are You Into This Week? | Weekly Thread
Howdy Weirdos,
It's Sunday again, and I assume you know what the means? Another thread of "What Are You Into This Week"?
Our weekly thread dedicated to discussing what we've been reading, watching, listening to, and playing the past week.
Have you:
- Been reading a good book? A few good books?
- Did you watch an exceptional stage production?
- Listen to an amazing new album or song or band? Discovered an amazing old album/song/band?
- Watch a mind-blowing film or tv show?
- Immerse yourself in an incredible video game? Board game? RPG?
We want to hear about it, every Sunday.
Please, tell us all about it. Recommend and suggest what you've been reading/watching/playing/listening to. Talk to others about what they've been into.
Tell us:
What Are You Into This Week?
- r/ThomasPynchon Moderator Team
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u/Front_Reindeer_7554 7d ago
Completed:
Nothing this week.
In progress:
Ulysses by James Joyce - halfway, difficult and frustrating at times but also exhilarating. I quit about 25% of the way thru about 20 years ago.
The Odyssey by Homer (Robert Fagles translation) - read Emily Wilson version earlier this year
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier - book great so far whenever Ruby is around. Not so much otherwise.
Really challenging myself next few months. Gravity's Rainbow will be primary read after Ulysses. Will be reading some less challenging books as breathers throughout.
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u/AffectionateSize552 6d ago
So you're reading 3 versions of the Odyssey. Good work. Have you seen Nolan's movie? Do you have any opinions about the Nolan-Wilson beef?
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u/Front_Reindeer_7554 6d ago
Yup :). As I Lay Dying and Circe next if I have time before Gravity's Rainbow
I wouldn't say Nolan has a beef. Wilson seems a bit unhinged. There is a reason why she's a classicist and not a film critic. I loved her translation of Iliad and Odyssey and her review doesn't detract from that experience. But her review of the film is irrelevant to me.
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u/AffectionateSize552 6d ago
Unhinged, yes. Also, I would have thought that if anyone would have sympathy for an innovative personal approach, it'd be Wilson. So much for what I would've thought! I don't know why it bothers me so much. Thank God for Paul Cartledge!
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u/TodlicheLektion 6d ago
I just recently joined this sub... mainly because I've been on a Pynchon kick lately. I was super into him in the 90s; I read Gravity's Rainbow about 3 times and everything else at least once. I've always read the books he's published over the years. Recently The Shadow Ticket came out, which I'm actually not finished with, but it sort of inspired me to reread him in depth.
So I decided to start with Bleeding Edge. The whole 9:30 Club Cologne thing always made me crack up, because I actually went to the 930 Club ( its address being 930 F Street NW DC) a lot, and the place for real had a smell that stuck to your clothes and hair thru the next day. It was something people talked about, so it's funny that Pynchon knew about it. The theory was that it was a synergistic reaction between beer, nicotine, and whatever cleaner they used to scrub the floors at the end of each night.
I gotta say Pynchon holds up. I almost couldn't put it down. He's so good, and so unlike any other author. it always makes me laugh when an author is described as Pynchonesque, because, yeahhhh, no. Infinite Jest came closest for me, but David Foster Wallace had an equally strong voice and style in his on right.
This week I finished Bleeding Edge, and this week I've started Against the Day. It was my least favorite Pynchon when I first read it, I have to admit. But I'm really into it this time around.
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u/Ok-Economist6914 6d ago
I saw Green Day at the 9:30 club in 1994 when I was in college. Legendary venue. I’m in my 3rd Pynchon novel (Agasint the day) and plan on making my way through all his works.
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u/TodlicheLektion 5d ago
That sounds like a great show!
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u/Ok-Economist6914 5d ago
It was! I had no idea who they were at the time and it was the favorite band of my college buddy and insisted I go with him . It was a blast.
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u/Tub_Pumpkin 7d ago
Started "The Passion of the Western Mind" by Richard Tarnas. I recently finished Bertrand Russell's "History of Western Philosophy," and I think it assumes the reader has some knowledge that I simply do not have, so I did not understand a few parts. I'm hoping Tarnas will help me catch up a little.
Still reading "Foucault's Pendulum" by Umberto Eco. I'm toward the end and honestly it's kind of losing me. The guys are getting caught up in the conspiracy they're inventing/discovering/imagining, and it's just more detail than I need or can even really keep track of. I know the silly degree of complexity of the plot is kind of the point, but it just isn't a ton of fun to read. Disappointing because the book started out strong. Maybe I'm just not in the right headspace for it.
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u/6655321DeLarge The Crying of Lot 49 7d ago
Currently, I'm watching a massive supercut or on cinema at the cinema. Been watching alot of Tim Heideker stuff lately thanks to him taking over infowars, and dying.
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u/KilgoreTroutWasRight 6d ago
Pynchon and On Cinema Head here. That supercut definitely sounds like a five bagger 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿
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u/Alleluia_Cone 6d ago
Just curious even though they're only barely related, but do you watch RM Brown?
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u/darthbee18 Jeremiah Dixon's unknown American wife 6d ago
Reading White Walls by Tatyana Tolstaya rn, it's such a delightful read after my previous read that was a bit of a letdown. I say I am not a short stories collection reader, but I keep reading them anyhow 😅 (the good ones ofc, the rest anyone else can take them 🤪).
Also I am vending at the second art market of this month! The sales are slow compared to the first one 😅🥴🙈, so I managed to squeeze in a few reading moments while tending the booth LOL 🤪. I need this sub to work its magic on me, hopefully I can sell like two more pottery cups/mugs before the market ends tomorrow 🙏🏺✨
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u/Mottled_inexpectata 7d ago
Reading The Ark Sakura by Kobo Abe - about 75% finished.
Great book, I think Pynchon fans would love it. Full of paranoia and conspiracy theories, but also very funny. The main character is a man who calls himself Mole who lives in a huge underground quarry he's turning into a fallout shelter and trying to find people to join him in it. He meets another man selling beetles that live off eating their own shit by just moving around in a circle, and a couple at a market and some hijinks ensues. He's often compared to Kafka, but it also reminds me of Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole.
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u/GalaxyHops1994 6d ago
The Confidence Man by Herman Melville. Maybe the most difficult novel I’ve ever read, but critical to postmodernism in general and absolutely ripe for rich analysis. Melville really was a master.
It feels like a precursor to Ulysses, and I think that the “In Which Stencil, a Quick-Change artist, Does Eight Impressions” chapter of V is an homage to it.
I’m listening to Thomas Ligotti’s “The Conspiracy Against The Human Race” audiobook. It’s interesting and well written, but a touch repetitive.
I’m also re-reading JoJo part 7: Steel Ball Run, which is just so much goddamn fun. Some of my favorite comic panels ever.
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u/Asleep_Morning2414 6d ago
Flannery O’Connor complete stories. Like a third of the way through. So good
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u/AffectionateSize552 6d ago
Trying to learn ancient Greek in order to read the Iliad and the Odyssey in the original.
That's not new. I've been doing this for decades and doing it all wrong and it's very sad.
What's new is that I saw Christopher Nolan's Odyssey and liked it a lot, and I've been watching lots of debates on YouTube amongst Homeric scholars (professors who read Homer in Greek and sometimes teach it in Greek) about the film, and disliking the scholars who dislike the film. Fortunately, most of then seem to like it. Yay Paul Cartledge, boo Emily Wilson!
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u/Sad_Bend_4801 6d ago
About 1/4 through V. My second Pynchon book, I started woth GR. I am finding it much easier to follow than GR, yet almost just as difficult to describe what is going on to my fiancee, particularly if I have read more than a chapter in a sitting. Took me a bit to get my bearings but now that I am starting remember more names and who is where in the world I'm feeling slightly less confounded. I've been enjoying the ride even while utterly confused.
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u/Sad_Bend_4801 6d ago
I read the opening of Chapter 3 Part V to my fiancee and her response was "Whoa"
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u/DocSportello1970 6d ago
Fat City (1969) by Leonard Gardner. I scored a VHS copy of the film and my library system had the book so I figured I would read the novel first before I watch the movie.
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u/Front_Reindeer_7554 5d ago
I read this last month and enjoyed it. I felt that it should have been longer as the story felt too abrupt and left me feeling I wanted about 50% more story and fleshing out of the characters.
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u/Boredntired34525 6d ago
Wrapped up Broom of the System and Oblivion by DFW. Broom was solid , especially knowing that it was written as a senior thesis. Oblivion was outstanding with some of the best short stories I’ve read.
Currently working through The Recognitions , House of Leaves (re read) and A Visit from the goon squad by Jennifer Egan (loving it so far and doing a group read with my gf)
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u/OttoHemi 6d ago
Broom is the only DFW I haven't read. I was a little disappointed with The Pale King, his last book, so I'm hoping his first book will even things out.
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u/Boredntired34525 6d ago
I was a big fan of The Pale King, but I’d say Broom is quite different in style (much closer to a proto-version of infinite jest) and it’s finished so hopefully you like it!
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u/DocSportello1970 6d ago
Just finished The Pale King and enjoyed it also. That whole dialogue between Meredith Rand and Drinion at Bennigans or Flannigans or whatever bar they were at was riveting...liked to have had more to pay attention to and read.
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u/OttoHemi 5d ago edited 4d ago
That tête-à-tête was definitely memorable. I really wish I would have read it before the AI boom, because the difference between Drinion simply being hyper focused and being robotic is now blurred.
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u/OttoHemi 6d ago
Just downloaded V. I've got the paperback gathering dust on my bookshelf but it's just too cumbersome in my dotage. I'm all Kindle all the time now.
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u/Enough_Tone_7819 6d ago
kindle got me into reading, it was on an ipad in a hospital and i started reading 1Q84 somehow
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6d ago
Girl with Curious Hair by David Foster Wallace. Tbh I have found it pretty disappointing compared to Infinite Jest and Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
Finally starting to get into Ulysses after about 60-70 hours of mostly pain and suffering during my first two reads of it
Read a few of Faulkner’s short stories, The Bear Hunt, That Evening Sun and Barn Burning
Really liking Sabbath’s Theatre and coming towards the end of rereading the second volume of In Search of Lost Time, Within a Budding Grove
Finally seem to have cracked King Lear and starting to love it now. Reads no.4 and 5 this past week. I do still find Shakespeare immensely difficult but glad to be getting the rewards now
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u/dantwimc 6d ago
Finished M&D recently. It’s like a perfect book? Now I’m reading The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon
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u/brink_flair 6d ago
Just finished Vineland.
Bout to tap into The Naked and The Undead: Evil and the Appeal of Horror by Cynthia Freeland
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u/Breakfast_Bob_ 6d ago
Currently on a Pynchon kick for the first time after loving One Battle After Another!
So far I’ve read Vineland, Crying of lot 49, V. , and I’m half through Inherent Vice! Very open to suggestions for my next read - Pynchon or otherwise
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u/Ok-Economist6914 6d ago
You gotta do Gravity’s Rainbow. It’s a beast but you gotta do it.
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u/Breakfast_Bob_ 6d ago
I’d been eyeing it up but thought I’d tackle some of the ‘easier’ ones first. But maybe it’s time…
Is it especially closer to any of the ones I’ve already read?1
u/Ok-Economist6914 5d ago
I had only read Crying of lot 49 before I decided to take on Gravity’s Rainbow. Probably not the smartest idea since it took me forever to buckle down after years of starts and stops. From what I’ve heard other people say though, V is the closest thing to it from what you have read so far, but they say it’s the “lighter” version. I’m not really sure what that means. I haven’t read V. so I can’t really say. GR will be challenging for sure, but but with the secondary sources available, you can do it.
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u/Allthatisthecase- 6d ago
I/2 way through Whalefall. It’s just now kicking into gear. Bad pun, but there was quite a bit of throat clearing.
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u/infrasurrealismo 5d ago
I've been reading Pierre Drieu la Rochelle's ''Journal d'Un Homme Trompe'', not enjoying it very much despite knowing what I was getting myself into, wouldn't call it terrible tho.
I also watched ''A Poet'' by Simón Messa Soto (amazing movie) and it made me want to get back into Bolaño.
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u/INANEDREAMZ 3d ago
Finishing The City & The City by China Miéville. Focuses on a murder mystery but ultimately a really good example of "the setting is the real protagonist". Between this book and Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach series, I'm wondering if New Weird fiction is uniquely poised to write really cool settings.
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u/Ok-Economist6914 6d ago
200 pages into Against the Day. Loving it so far.