Tickling the Master's Creatures
October 14, 2010 7:43 AM Subscribe
Thomas Pynchon is one of the great unheard lyricists. His award-winning novel, Gravity's Rainbow, is full of song lyrics. Depending on how you count, there are around 100 in the book. Over the course of a year, the Thomas Pynchon Fake Book managed to set twenty-eight of them to music.
There are plenty of other instances of Thomas Pynchon's direct and indirect influence on music cataloged here.
Here's a song by the Klaxons called "Gravity's Rainbow."
The band Thrice has an album called Vheissu.
A-and here is a list of the pop & other songs mentioned in Inherent Vice, Pynchon's most recent novel.
u.s.w.
There are plenty of other instances of Thomas Pynchon's direct and indirect influence on music cataloged here.
Here's a song by the Klaxons called "Gravity's Rainbow."
The band Thrice has an album called Vheissu.
A-and here is a list of the pop & other songs mentioned in Inherent Vice, Pynchon's most recent novel.
u.s.w.
Like a fever dream come true! Thanks so much for sharing this, chavenet. I've only heard two of the songs so far, and this has already made my day.
posted by .kobayashi. at 7:48 AM on October 14, 2010
posted by .kobayashi. at 7:48 AM on October 14, 2010
Hey! Some of these are pretty good. We should do a mefimusic challenge.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 7:49 AM on October 14, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by Baby_Balrog at 7:49 AM on October 14, 2010 [3 favorites]
Dammit, I wish that I had heard about this - I did a bunch of these myself during previous reads. I'm kind of afraid to listen to them because I don't want them to contaminate my brain; it's sort of like watching the movie of a book and having those actors replace the characters in your mind. But I'm curious how similar or not they are to my own arrangements.
posted by dfan at 7:57 AM on October 14, 2010
posted by dfan at 7:57 AM on October 14, 2010
I will not be happy until someone films a hot air balloon being stalked through clouds by the sound of Marvy's men singing dirty limericks from a biplane (which is subsequently brought down via pie fight).
LITERATURE
posted by shakespeherian at 8:04 AM on October 14, 2010 [4 favorites]
LITERATURE
posted by shakespeherian at 8:04 AM on October 14, 2010 [4 favorites]
We should do a mefimusic challenge.
Man, all I could think of while reading about this and listening to the songs was "OK, who proposed the greatest MeFi Music challenge of all time and didn't tell me about it???"
posted by ORthey at 8:07 AM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
Man, all I could think of while reading about this and listening to the songs was "OK, who proposed the greatest MeFi Music challenge of all time and didn't tell me about it???"
posted by ORthey at 8:07 AM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
man, I do love Pynchon, but that music catalog site is pretty ridiculous:
Nirvana
Information
Rumour has it that the lyrics to Nirvana's 1991 smash "Smells Like Teen Spirit" may have been inspired by a song from Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. As far as we know, this is unsubstantiated -- but if anyone out there has any evidence of a real connection, please mail it to us. (For example, a photograph of Kurt and Courtney reading selections from V. to their baby would be just fine.)
and then they totally missed Land of Kush, who did a whole album based on Against the Day
posted by mannequito at 8:08 AM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
Nirvana
Information
Rumour has it that the lyrics to Nirvana's 1991 smash "Smells Like Teen Spirit" may have been inspired by a song from Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. As far as we know, this is unsubstantiated -- but if anyone out there has any evidence of a real connection, please mail it to us. (For example, a photograph of Kurt and Courtney reading selections from V. to their baby would be just fine.)
and then they totally missed Land of Kush, who did a whole album based on Against the Day
posted by mannequito at 8:08 AM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
We should do a mefimusic challenge.
I just sent some mail to new Challenge Overlord snsranch with a link to your comment, Baby_Balrog, just in case he misses this thread.
Thanks for the post, chavenet!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:18 AM on October 14, 2010
I just sent some mail to new Challenge Overlord snsranch with a link to your comment, Baby_Balrog, just in case he misses this thread.
Thanks for the post, chavenet!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:18 AM on October 14, 2010
I am currently making my third attempt to struggle through "Gravity's Rainbow". The only reason I haven't hurled it against the wall (as I did with miserable Pynchon fanboy David Foster Wallace's hideous pile of over-written, self-regarding flatulence "Infinite Jest") is that there are undeniable moments of poetry and intoxicating linguistic wildness in this book. However I firmly believe that reading should not be this hard. I mean the act of reading should not be this hard. Hard content and hard ideas are fine but god, Pynchon, damn you for not being able to make your prose work for the reader rather than vice versa. There are writers that can do that while still expressing difficult, surreal, indirect or disjointed ideas. You are not one of them. I'm sorry, when I constantly have to re-read sentences and paragraphs because I am uncertain who is speaking or what the fuck is going on, that is not good writing. Ever. What it is, is incredibly annoying.
If I don't make it through this time, I'm giving up for good.
posted by Decani at 8:29 AM on October 14, 2010
If I don't make it through this time, I'm giving up for good.
posted by Decani at 8:29 AM on October 14, 2010
Decani, maybe you're just reading too quickly. Who do you like to read?
posted by shakespeherian at 8:31 AM on October 14, 2010
posted by shakespeherian at 8:31 AM on October 14, 2010
Decani, I have no allegiance to Pynchon nor Gravity's Rainbow, but literature is different things to different people. Some people crave that challenge, like being disoriented and confused, just as some people like Dan Brown.
posted by ORthey at 8:34 AM on October 14, 2010
posted by ORthey at 8:34 AM on October 14, 2010
Thomas Pynchon is happy you decided to address him directly, Decani, and will take your advice into consideration. But I find that grandstanding soliloquy writing style a little irritating. Using a bunch of adjectives doesn't help you make your case against a writer any stronger.
I've got a copy of Gravity's Rainbow on my bookshelf here, eleven books away from Infinite Jest. I've been meaning to try rereading it again. I haven't finished either book, but each author's built up a hell of a lot of credit with me — Wallace with his essays, and Pynchon with The Crying of Lot 49, which goes a lot of places and goes them really fast. I have to admit that that book's nonending has made me really hesitant to continue with Rainbow. I don't like feeling like I'll read a bunch of pages and not get anywhere.
These songs are a lot of fun though. I know somebody illustrated every page of Gravity's Rainbow at some point, right? Have there been any attempts to set it to film or animation? I feel like that would be a great warm-up for the book itself.
posted by Rory Marinich at 8:37 AM on October 14, 2010 [2 favorites]
I've got a copy of Gravity's Rainbow on my bookshelf here, eleven books away from Infinite Jest. I've been meaning to try rereading it again. I haven't finished either book, but each author's built up a hell of a lot of credit with me — Wallace with his essays, and Pynchon with The Crying of Lot 49, which goes a lot of places and goes them really fast. I have to admit that that book's nonending has made me really hesitant to continue with Rainbow. I don't like feeling like I'll read a bunch of pages and not get anywhere.
These songs are a lot of fun though. I know somebody illustrated every page of Gravity's Rainbow at some point, right? Have there been any attempts to set it to film or animation? I feel like that would be a great warm-up for the book itself.
posted by Rory Marinich at 8:37 AM on October 14, 2010 [2 favorites]
Gravity's Rainbow is a particular book, and I think it's fine to not read it - most people don't. The first 1/3 of the book doesn't really make sense without the context of the second 1/3. I think especially for "good readers" it may be hard to admit that you won't make it all the way through a book the first time - that it's OK to set it down and come back later, to read the same section a few times, to start over. Not only OK but necessary.
posted by muddgirl at 8:38 AM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by muddgirl at 8:38 AM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
In some sense, it has the perfect ending - it is sort of a thriller, and in the end the solution to the mystery is revealed, for all that's worth to anybody at that point.
posted by muddgirl at 8:41 AM on October 14, 2010
posted by muddgirl at 8:41 AM on October 14, 2010
I've got a copy of Gravity's Rainbow on my bookshelf here, eleven books away from Infinite Jest.
The obsessive collector in me wants to know how your books are organized on the shelf that this can happen, because I find it difficult to believe that someone who owns Gravity's Rainbow would only have eleven books between P and W.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:43 AM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
The obsessive collector in me wants to know how your books are organized on the shelf that this can happen, because I find it difficult to believe that someone who owns Gravity's Rainbow would only have eleven books between P and W.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:43 AM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
(as I did with miserable Pynchon fanboy David Foster Wallace's hideous pile of over-written, self-regarding flatulence "Infinite Jest")
I was going to answer your question and got to this part and gave an injured sniff instead
posted by angrycat at 8:44 AM on October 14, 2010
I was going to answer your question and got to this part and gave an injured sniff instead
posted by angrycat at 8:44 AM on October 14, 2010
Hard content and hard ideas are fine but god, Pynchon, damn you for not being able to make your prose work for the reader rather than vice versa.
I doubt it's a matter of ability.
Also, all Pynchon-loving musicians with an itch to record their interpretations should perhaps proceed with caution:
'The Eyes of a New York Woman' [by Insect Trust] featured lyrics written by novelist Thomas Pynchon. Made aware that his words had been 'borrowed' without prior consent, Pynchon threatened a lawsuit, demanding the album be withdrawn. In the end he settled with the band withdrawing the lawsuit in return for the group's commitment not to perform the song live.
posted by DaDaDaDave at 8:44 AM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
I doubt it's a matter of ability.
Also, all Pynchon-loving musicians with an itch to record their interpretations should perhaps proceed with caution:
'The Eyes of a New York Woman' [by Insect Trust] featured lyrics written by novelist Thomas Pynchon. Made aware that his words had been 'borrowed' without prior consent, Pynchon threatened a lawsuit, demanding the album be withdrawn. In the end he settled with the band withdrawing the lawsuit in return for the group's commitment not to perform the song live.
posted by DaDaDaDave at 8:44 AM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
In some sense, it has the perfect ending - it is sort of a thriller, and in the end the solution to the mystery is revealed, for all that's worth to anybody at that point.
Heh.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:44 AM on October 14, 2010
Heh.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:44 AM on October 14, 2010
Would Pynchon have to show up in person if he sued someone?
posted by muddgirl at 8:46 AM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by muddgirl at 8:46 AM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
(as I did with miserable Pynchon fanboy David Foster Wallace's hideous pile of over-written, self-regarding flatulence "Infinite Jest")
In the future, I'd advise against using five adjectives in a single sentence while calling a book over-written.
posted by IjonTichy at 8:48 AM on October 14, 2010 [10 favorites]
In the future, I'd advise against using five adjectives in a single sentence while calling a book over-written.
posted by IjonTichy at 8:48 AM on October 14, 2010 [10 favorites]
Does anyone have a link to an even halfway reliable account of the interaction between Pynchon and the band Lotion? I remember he wrote the liner notes for at least one of their albums, but there was apparently some back story about his having been a devoted fan, and frequent concert-goer, for a long time before suddenly revealing his identity to the band (who were suitably delighted and perplexed). I heard this all by word of mouth on the East Coast, many years ago.
posted by AkzidenzGrotesk at 9:00 AM on October 14, 2010
posted by AkzidenzGrotesk at 9:00 AM on October 14, 2010
Jeez, Decani, you're allowed to just say "This novel is not for me" without moving on to the conclusion that it is objectively a horrible book. I encourage you to stop trying to read it, get on with your life, and read books you enjoy.
posted by dfan at 9:00 AM on October 14, 2010
posted by dfan at 9:00 AM on October 14, 2010
Speaking of Pynchon songs, no love for Laurie Anderson's "Gravity's Angel"?
Oh, and here's another Pynchon/Gravity's Rainbow inspired tune...
posted by SansPoint at 9:02 AM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
Oh, and here's another Pynchon/Gravity's Rainbow inspired tune...
posted by SansPoint at 9:02 AM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
five adjectives in a single sentence
To be fair, some of those are deserved: "self-regarding" is accurate; "miserable" is certainly true, although not in the way Decani probably intended; and the book is definitely "over-written" in the same way that a Saturn V is "over-engineered."
posted by AkzidenzGrotesk at 9:08 AM on October 14, 2010 [4 favorites]
To be fair, some of those are deserved: "self-regarding" is accurate; "miserable" is certainly true, although not in the way Decani probably intended; and the book is definitely "over-written" in the same way that a Saturn V is "over-engineered."
posted by AkzidenzGrotesk at 9:08 AM on October 14, 2010 [4 favorites]
Pynchon lived in Seattle for part of the time he was working on Gravity's Rainbow. He was housemates with a friend of mine. Pynchon privacy is much over-stated, it's simply that he'd rather just be himself. So my friend never said much about him. But he did now the music to a lot of the songs. Many are old folk songs: "Do You Remember Red Malcom Up There?" is "Do You Remember Sweet Betsy From Pike," for instance.
It's worth remembering that Pychon was very close with Richard Farina, a folk singer and writer who died young in a motorcycle accident. GR is dedicated to Farina.
Where's the tilde on this keyboard?
posted by warbaby at 9:19 AM on October 14, 2010 [2 favorites]
It's worth remembering that Pychon was very close with Richard Farina, a folk singer and writer who died young in a motorcycle accident. GR is dedicated to Farina.
Where's the tilde on this keyboard?
posted by warbaby at 9:19 AM on October 14, 2010 [2 favorites]
> I find it difficult to believe that someone who owns Gravity's Rainbow would only have eleven books between P and W.
Only eleven volumes between G and I, on the other hand, is not a reach.
posted by ardgedee at 9:22 AM on October 14, 2010
Only eleven volumes between G and I, on the other hand, is not a reach.
posted by ardgedee at 9:22 AM on October 14, 2010
That's very true, and I hadn't even thought of that. I'm married to a former librarian.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:27 AM on October 14, 2010
posted by shakespeherian at 9:27 AM on October 14, 2010
I organize my books by abstrusity.
posted by found missing at 9:27 AM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by found missing at 9:27 AM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
As a librarian, I favour organising books by length. Therefore, 11 between GR and IJ sounds about right.
posted by Infinite Jest at 9:28 AM on October 14, 2010
posted by Infinite Jest at 9:28 AM on October 14, 2010
Nice. Thanks for this post. I love Pynchon.
posted by brundlefly at 9:28 AM on October 14, 2010
posted by brundlefly at 9:28 AM on October 14, 2010
But he did now the music to a lot of the songs. Many are old folk songs: "Do You Remember Red Malcom Up There?" is "Do You Remember Sweet Betsy From Pike," for instance.
I've always assumed this to be true with Pynchon songs -- that they're based on actual songs he knows and he's pastiched new lyrics for his books. Kind of like how Carroll's songs and poems in the Looking Glass books are nearly all based on popular songs or poems of his day. Sometimes I can figure out a basic meter and song style based on just reading the lyrics, other times it's simply just poetry for me because I can't find a melody in my head.
Where's the tilde on this keyboard?
On my Mac, I hold down the option key while typing an "n", and then hit the "n" a second time to create ñ.
posted by hippybear at 10:02 AM on October 14, 2010
I've always assumed this to be true with Pynchon songs -- that they're based on actual songs he knows and he's pastiched new lyrics for his books. Kind of like how Carroll's songs and poems in the Looking Glass books are nearly all based on popular songs or poems of his day. Sometimes I can figure out a basic meter and song style based on just reading the lyrics, other times it's simply just poetry for me because I can't find a melody in my head.
Where's the tilde on this keyboard?
On my Mac, I hold down the option key while typing an "n", and then hit the "n" a second time to create ñ.
posted by hippybear at 10:02 AM on October 14, 2010
Does it include my favorite? (sung to the tune of the Marseillaise}:
A lawn savant who'll lop a tree-e-e-ya
Nobody beats Marquis de Sod
posted by Obscure Reference at 10:09 AM on October 14, 2010
A lawn savant who'll lop a tree-e-e-ya
Nobody beats Marquis de Sod
posted by Obscure Reference at 10:09 AM on October 14, 2010
The Lightbulb song! The Banana song! A lovely, just lovely. You are a gentleman and a scholar. chavenet. Many thanks.
Off to call a couple of musician friends.
posted by Splunge at 10:18 AM on October 14, 2010
Off to call a couple of musician friends.
posted by Splunge at 10:18 AM on October 14, 2010
Sanspoint: I never heard that "Whip It" was inspired by Gravity's Rainbow -- thanks.
posted by Eyebeams at 10:34 AM on October 14, 2010
posted by Eyebeams at 10:34 AM on October 14, 2010
aaaand he applied for a grant to write an opera libretto that the Ford Foundation turned down.
http://www.jstor.org/pss/2927077
I'm sure there's better links to that story out there but...
posted by leonard horner at 10:37 AM on October 14, 2010
http://www.jstor.org/pss/2927077
I'm sure there's better links to that story out there but...
posted by leonard horner at 10:37 AM on October 14, 2010
I love Pynchon, and he includes lyrics -- lots of them -- in every book I've read of his. Gravity's Rainbow is just the tip of the iceberg. Though as much as I adore his prose, I don't think he has much of an ear for lyrics, at least not as much of one as he thinks he does. They always feel pretty awkward to me.
posted by statolith at 10:39 AM on October 14, 2010
posted by statolith at 10:39 AM on October 14, 2010
Well, but most of the songs are sung by folks working in mines, or soldiers, or barroom patrons-- not necessarily elegant songsmiths.
posted by shakespeherian at 10:40 AM on October 14, 2010
posted by shakespeherian at 10:40 AM on October 14, 2010
I find them rather awkward as well, but less so considering they're often set (theoretically) to the music of another era, with instrumentation and meter that seem foreign compared to the pop music of our time.
posted by Lorin at 11:10 AM on October 14, 2010
posted by Lorin at 11:10 AM on October 14, 2010
Well, I'm not expecting it to be pop music. It's just that he'll occasionally do things with meter that don't seem like they'd work in any era of music that I am familiar with. See, for example, some of the songs in Inherent Vice that are supposed to be by bona fide musicians. And don't mean to say that it's always the case that I don't like them -- it's actually rather charming that he's such a lover of music.
posted by statolith at 11:23 AM on October 14, 2010
posted by statolith at 11:23 AM on October 14, 2010
All that is to say that I'm way more interested in music inspired by TRP rather than just setting his lyrics to music. I've listened to that Land of Kush album a lot and really like it, and I confess to writing a song or two inspired by Against The Day myself.
posted by statolith at 11:25 AM on October 14, 2010
posted by statolith at 11:25 AM on October 14, 2010
I never did finish the book, but loved lots of the bits I did finish. I especially liked the White Visitation and the attempts to win the war through paranormal means. A seance to contact a pilot. I wrote a little song about it at the time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSsBR2BKd4I
Sing me a new song, it's coming in slowly
wait for a moment and the moment's gone
And everyone's happy out in the party
they live for the moment
and the moment's gone
Shine me a new light
Send me an angel high over Lubeck casting a shadow on the heat below
A sensitive flame will dance in the darkness if a fool is a witness to this crying game
Shine me a new light
Ten past eleven, dancing and drowning, living in circles in the deep blue sea
and everyone's looking, looking for something
looking for someone
looking for me
Shine me a new light
posted by jetsetsc at 12:21 PM on October 14, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSsBR2BKd4I
Sing me a new song, it's coming in slowly
wait for a moment and the moment's gone
And everyone's happy out in the party
they live for the moment
and the moment's gone
Shine me a new light
Send me an angel high over Lubeck casting a shadow on the heat below
A sensitive flame will dance in the darkness if a fool is a witness to this crying game
Shine me a new light
Ten past eleven, dancing and drowning, living in circles in the deep blue sea
and everyone's looking, looking for something
looking for someone
looking for me
Shine me a new light
posted by jetsetsc at 12:21 PM on October 14, 2010
The obsessive collector in me wants to know how your books are organized on the shelf that this can happen, because I find it difficult to believe that someone who owns Gravity's Rainbow would only have eleven books between P and W.
They just sprawl everywhere. Murakami falls between Pynchon and Wallace, for instance, and Borges comes after Wallace but before Moore. Thank you, however, for giving me the idea of developing an overly-paranoid organization system for all my books keyed to a map of Philadelphia.
posted by Rory Marinich at 12:52 PM on October 14, 2010 [2 favorites]
They just sprawl everywhere. Murakami falls between Pynchon and Wallace, for instance, and Borges comes after Wallace but before Moore. Thank you, however, for giving me the idea of developing an overly-paranoid organization system for all my books keyed to a map of Philadelphia.
posted by Rory Marinich at 12:52 PM on October 14, 2010 [2 favorites]
All that is to say that I'm way more interested in music inspired by TRP rather than just setting his lyrics to music.
I agree with that. Although I'd still love to see some kind of Gravity's Rainbow musical!
posted by Lorin at 12:54 PM on October 14, 2010
I agree with that. Although I'd still love to see some kind of Gravity's Rainbow musical!
posted by Lorin at 12:54 PM on October 14, 2010
NOW LET'S ALL POST PHOTOS OF OUR BOOKSHELVES
posted by shakespeherian at 12:57 PM on October 14, 2010
posted by shakespeherian at 12:57 PM on October 14, 2010
I'd still love to see some kind of Gravity's Rainbow musical!
The comic number "English Candy Drill" is starting to write itself in my mind even as I attempt to discourage it happening.
posted by hippybear at 12:57 PM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
The comic number "English Candy Drill" is starting to write itself in my mind even as I attempt to discourage it happening.
posted by hippybear at 12:57 PM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
NOW LET'S ALL POST PHOTOS OF OUR BOOKSHELVES
I'm sure some of us have done that before, but you never did.
--The Kenosha Kid
posted by AkzidenzGrotesk at 1:11 PM on October 14, 2010 [4 favorites]
I'm sure some of us have done that before, but you never did.
--The Kenosha Kid
posted by AkzidenzGrotesk at 1:11 PM on October 14, 2010 [4 favorites]
I don't like feeling like I'll read a bunch of pages and not get anywhere.
Well, somebody gets castrated. And it's not who you might expect. And then there is Rocket 00000. That gets resolved. Slothrop and Katje or Roger and Jessica (or Pointsman!), not so much.
The obsessive collector in me wants to know how your books are organized on the shelf that this can happen, because I find it difficult to believe that someone who owns Gravity's Rainbow would only have eleven books between P and W.
I keep Gravity's Rainbow and IJ (and Oblivion, and Girl with the Curious Hair, and The Devils of Loudon, and Underworld, and the Illuminatus Trilogy, and The Discovery of Heaven, and Mason & Dixon, and a first edition of Loading Mercury with a Pitchfork, and a few others) all on my "top shelf" - non-alphabetical order, mostly grouped by author.
To be honest, I find the lyrics to be the least interesting part of Pynchon's book, although I do appreciate the crude humor in some of them. This music isn't so great for me. I'll try a few more.
and then they totally missed Land of Kush, who did a whole album based on Against the Day
ooh, thanks. I will check that one out for sure.
Does anyone have a link to an even halfway reliable account of the interaction between Pynchon and the band Lotion?
I had heard a similar story as well, but was never able to corroborate online. According to the New Yorker it was a hoax (though he did write the liner notes to "Nobody's Cool").
Here is the band’s current version of events: They had, in fact, met Pynchon, but they did so through his accountant, who happened to be the mother of Lotion’s drummer, Rob Youngberg. She gave Pynchon an advance copy of Lotion’s album “Nobody’s Cool,” and he liked it well enough; at any rate, he agreed to write the liner notes. (Pynchon stalkers responded—at a show in Toronto, Ferguson said, someone approached the stage “with a fucking shoebox” of manuscript pages intended for the master’s appraisal.)
Pynchon did attend some Lotion shows, they now say, but not in Cincinnati. He didn’t wear a Godzilla T-shirt. And he used a credit card like everyone else. “Tom never cultivated his reclusiveness,” Zajkowski says. “We did.” In fact, Zajkowski didn’t find the author all that elusive. “This guy was not Clark Kent.” Maybe not; or maybe Pynchon will finally emerge with his version of the story.
- "The Pynchon Hoax," Christopher Glazek
Last Song sounds like a House of the Rising Sun knockoff ...
And where's the "Now, everybody!"? I was excited for that part.
posted by mrgrimm at 1:26 PM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
Well, somebody gets castrated. And it's not who you might expect. And then there is Rocket 00000. That gets resolved. Slothrop and Katje or Roger and Jessica (or Pointsman!), not so much.
The obsessive collector in me wants to know how your books are organized on the shelf that this can happen, because I find it difficult to believe that someone who owns Gravity's Rainbow would only have eleven books between P and W.
I keep Gravity's Rainbow and IJ (and Oblivion, and Girl with the Curious Hair, and The Devils of Loudon, and Underworld, and the Illuminatus Trilogy, and The Discovery of Heaven, and Mason & Dixon, and a first edition of Loading Mercury with a Pitchfork, and a few others) all on my "top shelf" - non-alphabetical order, mostly grouped by author.
To be honest, I find the lyrics to be the least interesting part of Pynchon's book, although I do appreciate the crude humor in some of them. This music isn't so great for me. I'll try a few more.
and then they totally missed Land of Kush, who did a whole album based on Against the Day
ooh, thanks. I will check that one out for sure.
Does anyone have a link to an even halfway reliable account of the interaction between Pynchon and the band Lotion?
I had heard a similar story as well, but was never able to corroborate online. According to the New Yorker it was a hoax (though he did write the liner notes to "Nobody's Cool").
Here is the band’s current version of events: They had, in fact, met Pynchon, but they did so through his accountant, who happened to be the mother of Lotion’s drummer, Rob Youngberg. She gave Pynchon an advance copy of Lotion’s album “Nobody’s Cool,” and he liked it well enough; at any rate, he agreed to write the liner notes. (Pynchon stalkers responded—at a show in Toronto, Ferguson said, someone approached the stage “with a fucking shoebox” of manuscript pages intended for the master’s appraisal.)
Pynchon did attend some Lotion shows, they now say, but not in Cincinnati. He didn’t wear a Godzilla T-shirt. And he used a credit card like everyone else. “Tom never cultivated his reclusiveness,” Zajkowski says. “We did.” In fact, Zajkowski didn’t find the author all that elusive. “This guy was not Clark Kent.” Maybe not; or maybe Pynchon will finally emerge with his version of the story.
- "The Pynchon Hoax," Christopher Glazek
Last Song sounds like a House of the Rising Sun knockoff ...
And where's the "Now, everybody!"? I was excited for that part.
posted by mrgrimm at 1:26 PM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
The Kenosha Kid probably deserves an FPP all his own [PDF].
posted by chavenet at 1:28 PM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by chavenet at 1:28 PM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
NOW LET'S ALL POST PHOTOS OF OUR BOOKSHELVES
Or paintings.
Thanks. It's a little light for an FPP but I've been waiting to post that link.
(I can't be the only here who has one bookshelf with all my favorites, can I?)
posted by mrgrimm at 1:28 PM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
Or paintings.
Thanks. It's a little light for an FPP but I've been waiting to post that link.
(I can't be the only here who has one bookshelf with all my favorites, can I?)
posted by mrgrimm at 1:28 PM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
Take that photos of bookshelfs stuff to MetaChat where it belongs.
I always like Byron the Bulb.
posted by warbaby at 1:33 PM on October 14, 2010
I always like Byron the Bulb.
posted by warbaby at 1:33 PM on October 14, 2010
I would be okay with an entire novel about Byron and his travels, a sort of eternal light bulb version of Forrest Gump in Europe.
posted by shakespeherian at 1:46 PM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by shakespeherian at 1:46 PM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
One of my old bands did a fake English Invasion-style interpretation of The Paranoids' 'Serenade' from The Crying of Lot 49. They actually are quite nice lyrics.
I read Gravity's Rainbow many years ago and can recall virtually none of it. They're building some kinda rocket in it, I guess...
posted by ovvl at 2:57 PM on October 14, 2010
I read Gravity's Rainbow many years ago and can recall virtually none of it. They're building some kinda rocket in it, I guess...
posted by ovvl at 2:57 PM on October 14, 2010
In the future, I'd advise against using five adjectives in a single sentence while calling a book over-written.
posted by IjonTichy at 4:48 PM on October 14
And yet I'm willing to bet that my meaning was perfectly clear and lucid in spite of my decision to use an excess of adjectives Wasn't it?
posted by Decani at 4:40 PM on October 14, 2010
posted by IjonTichy at 4:48 PM on October 14
And yet I'm willing to bet that my meaning was perfectly clear and lucid in spite of my decision to use an excess of adjectives Wasn't it?
posted by Decani at 4:40 PM on October 14, 2010
Decani, maybe you're just reading too quickly. Who do you like to read?
posted by shakespeherian at 4:31 PM on October 14
Please be assured that I am a widely experienced reader and further, one who enjoys the offbeat, the experimental and the rule-breaking. But I do insist that writers should communicate effectively. I don't care what they seek to communicate, or by what tortuous and fractured pathways they choose to lead us, but I have no patience with those who will not take our hands firmly and keep a solid grip. Pynchon does not do this. Pynchon throws gems and fragments and rubbish out with such an arrogant lack of consideration for his reader that it is very, very hard to forgive him, and the only reason I am tempted to do so at all is that his gems are very finely cut and multi-faceted. But god, I loathe him for his unrestrained verbal incontinence. It is a form of writing that is sadly typical of its time, and I cannot help but feel that Pynchon would have been a far better writer had he been born thirty years earlier, or later.
DFW, on the other hand, was just an anally retentive geekboy smartarse who wouldn't have known good writing if it kicked him right up his over-inflated, suicidal arse. I cannot think of a bigger case of modern literary Emperor's New Clothes than DFW. Except, maybe, Dave Eggers. But he doesn't really count because let's face it, no one really likes Dave Eggers. Saying you honestly like Dave Eggers is almost as embarrassing as saying you honestly like Ayn Rand.
posted by Decani at 4:57 PM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by shakespeherian at 4:31 PM on October 14
Please be assured that I am a widely experienced reader and further, one who enjoys the offbeat, the experimental and the rule-breaking. But I do insist that writers should communicate effectively. I don't care what they seek to communicate, or by what tortuous and fractured pathways they choose to lead us, but I have no patience with those who will not take our hands firmly and keep a solid grip. Pynchon does not do this. Pynchon throws gems and fragments and rubbish out with such an arrogant lack of consideration for his reader that it is very, very hard to forgive him, and the only reason I am tempted to do so at all is that his gems are very finely cut and multi-faceted. But god, I loathe him for his unrestrained verbal incontinence. It is a form of writing that is sadly typical of its time, and I cannot help but feel that Pynchon would have been a far better writer had he been born thirty years earlier, or later.
DFW, on the other hand, was just an anally retentive geekboy smartarse who wouldn't have known good writing if it kicked him right up his over-inflated, suicidal arse. I cannot think of a bigger case of modern literary Emperor's New Clothes than DFW. Except, maybe, Dave Eggers. But he doesn't really count because let's face it, no one really likes Dave Eggers. Saying you honestly like Dave Eggers is almost as embarrassing as saying you honestly like Ayn Rand.
posted by Decani at 4:57 PM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
I guess I just don't understand why I'd want to read and re-read something that I considered to be "arrogant"... something that I truly loathed, that I considered verbal diarrhea. Might as well just get the Clif's notes or cut out all the parts I liked and ignore the parts I didn't.
Thankfully I consider Pynchon's style to be quite effective for what I see as his purposes.
posted by muddgirl at 5:14 PM on October 14, 2010
Thankfully I consider Pynchon's style to be quite effective for what I see as his purposes.
posted by muddgirl at 5:14 PM on October 14, 2010
DFW, on the other hand, was just an anally retentive geekboy smartarse who wouldn't have known good writing if it kicked him right up his over-inflated, suicidal arse.
Opinions are like assholes; a dental dam is required to render yours palatable.
posted by thescientificmethhead at 6:46 PM on October 14, 2010 [3 favorites]
Opinions are like assholes; a dental dam is required to render yours palatable.
posted by thescientificmethhead at 6:46 PM on October 14, 2010 [3 favorites]
Please be assured that I am a widely experienced reader and further, one who enjoys the offbeat, the experimental and the rule-breaking.
I wasn't being condescending, I was suggesting that for particular writers you may be better served by slowing down, since you complained that you had to go back and 're-read sentences and paragraphs because I am uncertain who is speaking or what the fuck is going on.'
suicidal arse
Do not use 'suicidal' as pejorative again.
Frankly I was much more willing to believe that you're an experienced reader before you pulled the amateur high school stunt of stating that anyone who disagrees with your iconoclastic opinions about certain literary golden boys is a worse reader than yourself. You may have read a lot, but you don't seem to have experienced much of what you've read, or you might not be as immature as you're being here.
posted by shakespeherian at 6:59 PM on October 14, 2010 [3 favorites]
I wasn't being condescending, I was suggesting that for particular writers you may be better served by slowing down, since you complained that you had to go back and 're-read sentences and paragraphs because I am uncertain who is speaking or what the fuck is going on.'
suicidal arse
Do not use 'suicidal' as pejorative again.
Frankly I was much more willing to believe that you're an experienced reader before you pulled the amateur high school stunt of stating that anyone who disagrees with your iconoclastic opinions about certain literary golden boys is a worse reader than yourself. You may have read a lot, but you don't seem to have experienced much of what you've read, or you might not be as immature as you're being here.
posted by shakespeherian at 6:59 PM on October 14, 2010 [3 favorites]
Yeah, I missed that the first time through. Not cool.
posted by muddgirl at 7:11 PM on October 14, 2010
posted by muddgirl at 7:11 PM on October 14, 2010
I honestly like Ayn Rand. It's been a year since I've reread her, but when I had a copy of The Fountainhead lying around it was in my pulp reading list along with Dan Brown, whose books I own all of, and the entirety of my middle school's YA fantasy library, which I keep on my Kindle. I like parts of her philosophy while accepting that her intent behind her writing was fairly batshit insane, but it was reading her that sparked my love for architecture and fine art, and got me into both the Romantic and Modernist periods of art, both of which I still love to this day.
I guess I should be embarrassed. Moreover, I guess it's a personal failing of mine that I'm not. Kind of like how I've been told before that it's a personal failing that I'm planning on voting for Obama in two years' time, or that I'm attending art school, or that I'm a Communication major focusing on advertising. People are really good at finding reasons why I'm not a good human being, and then they get really mad at me when I tell them that actually I think it's possible to be good and still contradictory.
As many people tell me, for instance, that I'm a failure for citing Finnegans Wake as one of my favorite novels, as tell me that I'm a failure for loving the shit out of Dan Brown's Angels & Demons, and their reasons for calling me a failure are pretty opposite. Ditto people who've hated on me for loving Synecdoche, NY and Ocean's Thirteen. Half of them think I'm interested in obscure, difficult gibberish, and the other half think I'm simple-minded and can't handle a challenging film. And I used to do the same back to other people. I still do occasionally towards Taylor Swift fans and Twilight readers. But it's a little more self-mocking now, because in all of my twenty difficult years I've come to realize that people frequently like things because they see stuff there that I don't.
I also found that when I dislike something, it's better to avoid it, or at least to engage fans honestly and fairly. Otherwise I'm just being, I dunno what to call it, let's go with 'asshole'. At least that's what I get called when I pull shit like that. And if I've said something dumb, I usually appreciate an opportunity to step back, realize I've been unfair, and try to learn something from the people I've offended rather than just bunker down in my little 'grar' fortress. Maybe that's another thing for me to be embarrassed about.
posted by Rory Marinich at 7:40 PM on October 14, 2010 [6 favorites]
I guess I should be embarrassed. Moreover, I guess it's a personal failing of mine that I'm not. Kind of like how I've been told before that it's a personal failing that I'm planning on voting for Obama in two years' time, or that I'm attending art school, or that I'm a Communication major focusing on advertising. People are really good at finding reasons why I'm not a good human being, and then they get really mad at me when I tell them that actually I think it's possible to be good and still contradictory.
As many people tell me, for instance, that I'm a failure for citing Finnegans Wake as one of my favorite novels, as tell me that I'm a failure for loving the shit out of Dan Brown's Angels & Demons, and their reasons for calling me a failure are pretty opposite. Ditto people who've hated on me for loving Synecdoche, NY and Ocean's Thirteen. Half of them think I'm interested in obscure, difficult gibberish, and the other half think I'm simple-minded and can't handle a challenging film. And I used to do the same back to other people. I still do occasionally towards Taylor Swift fans and Twilight readers. But it's a little more self-mocking now, because in all of my twenty difficult years I've come to realize that people frequently like things because they see stuff there that I don't.
I also found that when I dislike something, it's better to avoid it, or at least to engage fans honestly and fairly. Otherwise I'm just being, I dunno what to call it, let's go with 'asshole'. At least that's what I get called when I pull shit like that. And if I've said something dumb, I usually appreciate an opportunity to step back, realize I've been unfair, and try to learn something from the people I've offended rather than just bunker down in my little 'grar' fortress. Maybe that's another thing for me to be embarrassed about.
posted by Rory Marinich at 7:40 PM on October 14, 2010 [6 favorites]
Some of you know this already: Laurie Anderson requested Pynchon's permission to make an opera based on Gravity's Rainbow. He agreed, on one condition: that it would be written for one instrument.
The banjo.
I do insist that writers should communicate effectively. I don't care what they seek to communicate, or by what tortuous and fractured pathways they choose to lead us, but I have no patience with those who will not take our hands firmly and keep a solid grip. Pynchon does not do this.
Have you considered the possibility that Pynchon communicates quite effectively (as defined by your own criteria), just not in a manner you find to your liking?
posted by foxy_hedgehog at 6:20 AM on October 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
The banjo.
I do insist that writers should communicate effectively. I don't care what they seek to communicate, or by what tortuous and fractured pathways they choose to lead us, but I have no patience with those who will not take our hands firmly and keep a solid grip. Pynchon does not do this.
Have you considered the possibility that Pynchon communicates quite effectively (as defined by your own criteria), just not in a manner you find to your liking?
posted by foxy_hedgehog at 6:20 AM on October 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
By the way, I'm very sad no one has recorded the collected works of Billy Barf and the Vomitones (the house band from Vineland).
posted by foxy_hedgehog at 6:22 AM on October 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by foxy_hedgehog at 6:22 AM on October 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
suicidal arse
I think we understand that you don't like his writing, and I'm willing to accept that you're unable to give a coherent reason for that, but dancing on his grave like this is truly disgusting. Piss off.
posted by IjonTichy at 8:39 AM on October 15, 2010 [3 favorites]
I think we understand that you don't like his writing, and I'm willing to accept that you're unable to give a coherent reason for that, but dancing on his grave like this is truly disgusting. Piss off.
posted by IjonTichy at 8:39 AM on October 15, 2010 [3 favorites]
By the way, I'm very sad no one has recorded the collected works of Billy Barf and the Vomitones (the house band from Vineland).
I think I'd rather hear Gino Baglione and the Paisans. The More/Senza Fine/Al Di La medley sounds delicious.
posted by mrgrimm at 12:33 PM on October 15, 2010
I think I'd rather hear Gino Baglione and the Paisans. The More/Senza Fine/Al Di La medley sounds delicious.
posted by mrgrimm at 12:33 PM on October 15, 2010
Please be assured that I have read Hammer of the Gods: the Led Zeppelin Saga.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:18 AM on October 16, 2010
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:18 AM on October 16, 2010
Goddamn I know FIAMO, but Decani you have not only horribly insulted an artist that many of us love, you have stuck a giant finger in the eye of those who have or know somebody who struggles with mental illness.
Given your insensitivity, I'm sure you don't care about a stranger's feelings about you, but I wish I could somehow demonstrate to you how needlessly awful your comment is. Christ Almighty.
posted by angrycat at 6:04 AM on October 16, 2010
Given your insensitivity, I'm sure you don't care about a stranger's feelings about you, but I wish I could somehow demonstrate to you how needlessly awful your comment is. Christ Almighty.
posted by angrycat at 6:04 AM on October 16, 2010
« Older chicago is a proxy for boston_red_sox | All in the details Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by muddgirl at 7:48 AM on October 14, 2010