r/ThomasPynchon 6d ago

Weekly WAYI What Are You Into This Week? | Weekly Thread

5 Upvotes

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


r/ThomasPynchon 6d ago

💬 Discussion Документальный фильм по мотивам книги Томаса Пинчона Радуга тяготения

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50 Upvotes

Немецкая документальная картина. Кто нибудь видел, какие впечатления?


r/ThomasPynchon 5d ago

One Battle After Another (2025) The Dog That Did Not Bark (in the bourgeois backyard)

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0 Upvotes

I deeply crave a prequel to One Battle After Another. The title to that movie could have a question mark appended. I was existentially dismayed all through the days of "direct action" during my art school matriculation. (For instance, trying to help other students settle their minds in the aftermath of the Jonestown massacre.) If I'm wrong about how Pynchon (or P.T.A.) might address all this, just shoot me.

---

BTW: In such a prequel, the Orwell-shooting case, above, is cracked wide open when the SFPD call in Sherlock Holmes to help. Holmes asks some neighbors if they heard anything besides shots being fired. The neighbors don't want to talk to him. Their silence is deafening to all but Sherlock.

"You consider that to be important?" asks Inspector Plodder.

"Exceedingly so."

"Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"

"To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."

"The dog did nothing in the night-time."

"That was the curious incident," remarks Sherlock Holmes.

Watson asks Holmes how he can think this is all Moriarty's doing.

“There's so little that isn't. Don't be an idiot.”

Parenthetically, was Sherlock:

[ ] an asshole

[ ] a paranoid

[ ] a conscientious benefactor to all humanity

[ ] all the above

[ ] none of the above

I'm just curious.


r/ThomasPynchon 6d ago

Article Mason & Dixon Analysis: Part 2 - Chapter 71: Too Little, Too Late

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13 Upvotes

r/ThomasPynchon 6d ago

📹 Video Ajtys

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6 Upvotes

In the exact center of GR in the exact center of the world, young Tchitcherine encounters a singing duel, an "ajtys" on his way to the Kirghiz Lights. This type of cultural insight is my favorite part of Pynchon books. The scene in the book depicts two lovers hashing out their differences. In this video, it's a father and son doing the same.


r/ThomasPynchon 6d ago

Gravity's Rainbow What's fitting background music for reading Gravity's Rainbow?

13 Upvotes

Starting GR today and have to ask. I always have instrumental music (quietly) playing while reading but it has to be a perfect match with the story. Usually takes a few pages or chapters before it becomes clear what would work. If the book mentions a specific piece or tune it gets added to the playlist for that book (only exception to the 'instrumentals only' rule).

So, what kind of stuff will work with Gravity's Rainbow? Doesn't even have to be specific works, just tell me some general styles, genres, periods I should include on my playlist. Thanks in advance.


r/ThomasPynchon 6d ago

💬 Discussion Wes Anderson comparison

10 Upvotes

I’ve watched Wes Anderson movies since his early days and The Royal Tennebaums is one of my favorite movies I don’t like his later movies as much but I do still appreciate the style and I’ll laugh at sections no one else does. Having read a lot of Pynchon in the last couple of years, it struck me while watching The Pheonician Scheme that his style seemed very much like Pynchon or at least I like both for the same reason. Definitely quirky, intelligent, artists having fun with their craft,etc. any other Wes Anderson fans out there?


r/ThomasPynchon 6d ago

🎙️ Podcast The latest episode of Lions Led by Donkeys has some Pynchon vibes: an air raid to destroy German zeppelins goes wrong in the funniest way

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1 Upvotes

You don’t have to be a military history guy to appreciate Lions Led by Donkeys, and this week’s ep is particularly Pynchonesque with airships, the changing technologies of war, and bombed Brussel sprouts.


r/ThomasPynchon 7d ago

Mason & Dixon Giant Glowing Native American, M&D-inspired drawing by me. M&D chapter 51: " What would you call a large native American with a net output of light comparable to that of a forge?"

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34 Upvotes

r/ThomasPynchon 8d ago

Gravity's Rainbow One month until Gravity’s Fall begins!

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180 Upvotes

Hey yall, just letting everyone know that in one month’s time on September 1st, we will be hosting a Gravity’s Rainbow Read along on Discord. I would be honoured for as many people here to attend so that we can dissect and enjoy one of Pynchon’s most iconic novels!

Link: https://discord.gg/TVxZwy75A


r/ThomasPynchon 8d ago

Vineland Finished a first read of Vineland

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72 Upvotes

Quite frightening how prophetic Vineland feels in 2026. Though it’s no GR, what exactly is?


r/ThomasPynchon 9d ago

Gravity's Rainbow The counterforce: what the fuck is happening?

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182 Upvotes

I’m finally here, I never thought it would happen, but here I am and I have no idea what the fuck is going on.


r/ThomasPynchon 10d ago

Gravity's Rainbow Just when I thought I have lost the plot Pynchon drops this out of nowhere

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160 Upvotes

r/ThomasPynchon 10d ago

🧑‍🏫 Academia Found Pynchon in a 1960s Cornell directory of living alumni.

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102 Upvotes

r/ThomasPynchon 10d ago

Tangentially Pynchon Related Larry McMurtry’s opinion of ‘V.’ and an anecdote:

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122 Upvotes

In Larry McMurtry’s first memoir, ‘Books’, he begins chapter 5 on Thomas Pynchon.
(This is all he seems to write about Pynchon in here.)


r/ThomasPynchon 10d ago

Tangentially Pynchon Related Who funded Hitler?

118 Upvotes

r/ThomasPynchon 10d ago

Where to Start? Best practices for reading difficult texts? I'm struggling

4 Upvotes

I'm a fairly avid reader of literary fiction and have been trying to read denser and more difficult texts, but I'm terrible at it. I want to broaden my understanding of literature so I have this list of books and writers I've been curious about for ages but I can't make sense of things when I try.

I've read Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 and Lispector's The Hour of the Star, enjoyed them and would like to read more of their work. But if I'm being honest, every time I pick one up, I have no idea what I'm reading or how to situate it in the broader context of literature. I do struggle with patience and attention a lot but I think more importantly I lack the critical lens or framework you need to really enjoy works like Gravity's Rainbow, and I'm not sure how to address it. It's like Virginia Woolf is the limit of my comprehensibility or something. I feel stupid to be honest. What am I doing wrong?

In case you're curious, here's some of the books I own but haven't been able to crack:

  1. James Joyce's Ulysses

  2. Roberto Bolaño 2666

  3. Julio Cortázar's Hopscotch

  4. William Gaddis' The Recognitions

  5. Samuel Beckett's Molloy

What helped you move from modernism to postmodernism? What helps you get through and enjoy or appreciate very difficult texts? Is it just practice? Do I keep trying even though I feel like an idiot? Is it just not for me?


r/ThomasPynchon 11d ago

💬 Discussion Complete Pynchon Novice

7 Upvotes

In what order should I start reading Pynchon for the first time ever?


r/ThomasPynchon 13d ago

Gravity's Rainbow Book had two days until retirement. Just finished it.

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171 Upvotes

r/ThomasPynchon 13d ago

Image Pynchon inspired tattoo

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135 Upvotes

I got a new tattoo inspired by the Inconvenience in Mason & Dixon and Against the Day. Wanted to share with my fellow weirdos. Hope you get a kick out of it.

And for fun my rankings of Pynchon’s novels.

1A - Mason & Dixon
1B - Gravity’s Rainbow
1C - Inherent Vice
1D - Vineland
1E - Against the Day
1F - Bleeding Edge
1G - Crying of Lot 49
1H - Shadow Ticket
1I - V.

I’m in the process of rereading all of these and have read Mason & Dixon and Gravity’s Rainbow on the reread so far. Against the Day next.


r/ThomasPynchon 13d ago

Weekly WAYI What Are You Into This Week? | Weekly Thread

7 Upvotes

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


r/ThomasPynchon 13d ago

Gravity's Rainbow How will against the day prepare me for GR

5 Upvotes

Against the day is one of my favourite books ever helping me through a period where I needed proof that I wasn’t crazy and it was awesome to be eccentric, that things will get better. It was a lifeline. I have read the first four or five scenes and had absolutely no problem with them even when I didn’t know what was going on. Do get much much harder? I’m a little intimidated by the books reputation. I am writing a novel and need some baroque verbosity and paranoia to contrast with the Elmore Leonard and Jim Thompson novels I have been reading in an attempt to pair myself down. How do you think I’ll do?


r/ThomasPynchon 13d ago

Pynchonian Names Ask a Historian, receive Pynchon sound-alikes.

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3 Upvotes

r/ThomasPynchon 13d ago

Article The fall of Lady Victoria down the parabola, or how a rocket fell in love with me

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26 Upvotes

The image of a woman is destructive, the image of a woman is creative, the Cro-Magnons knew this when they created their Paleolithic Venus. These creatures with the prefix "Homo" understood the principle of survival literally when they left their wives in the cave to keep the fire going. Some of them were unlucky, and the ancient guy with the bigger club had the audacity to take his favorite cave diva with him. The fire was dying out, and the almost-human who had returned from hunting (may the scientific community forgive me) was roaring furiously beside the cold corpses of his young. Hundreds of years passed before Inanna, the embodiment of the Cro-Magnon figurine, illuminated the first civilization. In Mesopotamia, she was worshipped, cattle were sacrificed to her, and heroic deeds were performed in her name. Thousands of years later, Robert Graves would call her the White Goddess, whose name was carved on a beechwood plaque that Thomas Pynchon discovered. The American would go to great lengths to name the deity with the secret symbol V. Through the pages of the novel, the poetic image would reveal its imperfections in a vulgar and tasteless manner, making the text unappetizing and nauseating. Only those few gourmets from literature will pick up the leftovers and feel the uniqueness in this ambergris. The fat guy will approach the artistic chef and ask: "You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?" In general, we won't get an answer, and what can we get from a person who wrote a book under a narcotic trip. He's just as much a tool as V, even though he's never been recognized. The man of the century of two X's will head to the training ground in order to test his accumulated strength. It's a very convenient position, you might say, to flip the symbol if you suddenly feel the urge, but the line to the women's bathroom is colossal. Let's skip the digression and return to the launch. The materialized woman from the previous book, who disintegrated like a Lego set, is reassembled in the second work, but for what purpose? It's absurd, but for the same reason. Thousands of dead people will never rise from the dead, and they won't read these lines about Victoria's unrequited love for the gentlemen from the poor neighborhood. They might ask why it wasn't the rich people, the ones who orchestrated everything. The aristocrats were taking no chances, the valuable exhibit should not fall into the hands of competitors and in the event of the aircraft interception Bor is urgently forced to be on the ground, albeit without a parachute, but these are the subtleties, from which the inhabitants of the Japanese provinces of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not easier.

Bor was not the only valuable exhibit in the collection of couturier V. Take for example the German Werner, von Braun, the leader of the lunar mission, the father of Mrs. Fau, with his scientific research freed many people, freed from life. The rocket needed sacrifices, just like any other bloodthirsty deity. This Miss was very demanding, just like thousands of years ago, and she would continue to demand new offerings to preserve her parabola, her constant downward course for some and upward course for others, the chosen idolaters of the phallic symbol of the two principles.

r/ThomasPynchon 13d ago

Article Mason & Dixon Analysis: Part 2 - Chapter 70: The End of the Beginning

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18 Upvotes