r/ThomasPynchon • u/Skippingrope_Canoe • 10h ago
The Crying of Lot 49 My own cover for The Crying of Lot 49
because the current one's ugly as sin
r/ThomasPynchon • u/KieselguhrKid13 • Nov 06 '25
End of the line, friends. Thanks to all those who've participated in this group read and contributed their thoughts. In this final discussion, I'd really love to see you share your thoughts on the book as a whole, in addition to on the final chapters we read.
Personally, I loved the ending and am already looking forward to reading this one again. It felt much more immediate in terms of its relation to, and commentary on, the present day, than just about anything else I've read in quite a while. It also felt very much, as someone else here described, as a coda to Against the Day.
Discussion questions:
Where is Bruno being taken on U-13? Are we to understand that reality has split in two forking directions, including a new one where the Business Plot succeeded and, in response, revolution is underway in America?
Was Hicks causing the items to asport with his "Oriental Attitude"? Both the "beaver tail" club and the tasteless lamp disappeared to prevent the need for violence on his part, and in both cases, he's described as experiencing the mental state that Zoltán described.
What does cheese/dairy represent? Between Bruno, the InChSyn, and the dairy revolt in the US at the end, it seems to be a symbol for something larger and more fundamental. Money? Food and resources in general?
On p. 290, Stuffy explains to Bruno that, "There is no Statue of Liberty... not where you're going." Instead, we see a Statue of Revolution? Is this a better reality that Bruno might be going to, or worse?
The book ends with a stark shift in narration, unlike any of Pynchon's other works: a letter, from Skeet to Hicks that feels almost like it's addressed directly to the reader. What's the message, if any, that Pynchon wants to leave us with, in what could likely be his final novel? Is he perhaps speaking directly to us through Skeet?
r/ThomasPynchon • u/Skippingrope_Canoe • 10h ago
because the current one's ugly as sin
r/ThomasPynchon • u/CapitalNo4799 • 1h ago
As in, did he bust a lot of loads in his life?
r/ThomasPynchon • u/JudgeLionelNutmeg • 8h ago
r/ThomasPynchon • u/guy_incognito42069 • 1d ago
Gravity’s Rainbow, part 4, section 3.
Now I’m wondering if George R.R. Martin and Pynchon are the same person. I’ve never seen them in a room together…
r/ThomasPynchon • u/Eastward_Ounce • 1d ago
I am good in English but I don't understand old fashioned or victorian or something rooted words or archaic words . It is complicated .
\*\*These are the books I found easy to read and have read so far this year\*\*
I've read : stoner, metamorphosis, white nights, death of Ivan ilych, stranger, fountainhead, man called ove, unlikely animals, the road, pet Sematary, all the sinners bleed, bell jar, ghost ship, the trail, cats Cradle, Alchemist, howls moving castle, evil under the sun, there there, silent patient, animal farm, nausea, memory police, norwegian wood, all the lovers at night, less than zero, three men in boat, that's not my name, butchers crossing.
Thank you.
r/ThomasPynchon • u/Direct-Tank387 • 1d ago
Found this at a used bookstore; thought you folks might be interested
r/ThomasPynchon • u/ClandestineSofa • 2d ago
I started this incredible novel back in July and it has been a wild journey. Thank you to Mapping the Zone podcast for being my book club along the way. I have no one to talk to about this type of book.
The last few chapters were so tough knowing my time with the boys was coming to an end. I don't have any massive insights to share other than if you are on the fence about diving into this one, take the plunge. I have no idea how one person actually wrote this book. How can an artist with so unique a style as Pynchon maintain that unique style while writing as if in the 18th century. It is beyond comprehension. A true work of art.
I have decided to follow up M&D by reading The Good Lord Bird which I feel will be a nice continuation of some of the ideas.
r/ThomasPynchon • u/grufflesia • 1d ago
It's fairly thin and I suspect it's some Italian joke I'm not getting, but it exists.
r/ThomasPynchon • u/Easy_Albatross_3538 • 2d ago
r/ThomasPynchon • u/PVF124 • 3d ago
r/ThomasPynchon • u/guy_incognito42069 • 3d ago
I’m trying to match up the timeline here. So the ‘00000’ is fired April 1st. What I am trying to figure out 1) Greta’s experience up in the Lüneberg heath, that was going on while the rocket was being prepared and fired, no? It seemed to me that she was part of some sex ritual (often a major part of Crowlian Magik) involving the Imipolex G. Unless I’m missing something, none of this correlates with anything Slothrop is up to at the time, correct? Sorry just trying to match this all up so I can piece together the whole Weissmann, Gottfried, the 00000, and what that all means. I’m ruminating on themes of sex, death, the military industrial complex, the inevitable death wish of mankind made real by unleashing these weapons that spell our doom, Weissmann’a obsession with death and his sexual connection to it, the sexual nature of the rocket and furthermore the sexual and phallic nature of most tools of death, the seemingly random death brought upon the preterite by the elect by things like rocket strikes or the bombing of Hiroshima and further into the Cold War, u.s.w.
r/ThomasPynchon • u/CoolKid9899 • 2d ago
r/ThomasPynchon • u/Electrical-Leg-9623 • 4d ago
r/ThomasPynchon • u/Lapooka • 5d ago
Gravity Rainbow. No words.
r/ThomasPynchon • u/GravitysParabole • 4d ago
A quote from my article on Pynchon (second from the bottom) was included in the Russian edition of Against the Day. It reads:
True to the tenets of postmodernism, Pynchon’s prose represents an extraordinary blend of literary worlds. His works are grounded in so-called "low genres" - conspiracy fiction, science fiction, and spy novels - yet they are written with consummate literary artistry. The text abounds in metaphors and philosophical reflections, frequently exploring the very nature of fiction and is generously seasoned with satire and elements of the picaresque novel.
The article itself:
r/ThomasPynchon • u/sosodank • 5d ago
just came across this formidable term for what i'm pretty sure is my first time (in the "see also" section of "computational complexity of multiplication", since you asked), and audibly emitted a "whoa". i'm somewhat shocked this didn't show up in mason & dixon somehow. it ties in several different ways, and seems the kind of thing that would have come up in research for that book, and it's just such a fantastic word. it's like half the stuff i've studied in my life somehow connect to this concept, and yet it's incredibly esoteric and completely worthless and i've not heard of it in forty-six years.
the References section on this page is great, too.
r/ThomasPynchon • u/fricksbycategory • 4d ago
i feel like he’s so good at making funny names he would knock it out of the park with a drag queen name.
r/ThomasPynchon • u/ZAH215 • 6d ago
Hello All. To start off, I want to make clear that A. I am enjoying the novel and have no issue with generally working with it, B. I have an alright grasp of plot but I want a better one.
I'm currently at page 150 of this novel and my most reoccurring feeling is this in and outness of understanding what's happening and being lost in this dense mist of language and words. Is there any way in which this is supposed to be read or is it one of those "you just have to feeeeeeel it man" kinda books. I'm used to an overwhelming prose like with Faulkner, but with him the structure is (typically) more systematic, whereas this is very much... different. Anyone felt similar, any assistance to be given?
r/ThomasPynchon • u/Lornake • 6d ago
r/ThomasPynchon • u/JudgeLionelNutmeg • 8d ago
r/ThomasPynchon • u/To_Helen • 8d ago
Just wanted to share a great few lines from the St. Helena section of Mason and Dixon (Ch. 11) that captured my imagination:
“… for Commerce without Slavery is unthinkable, whilst Slavery must ever include, as an essential Term, the Gallows, — Slavery without the Gallows being as hollow and Waste a Proceeding, as a Crusade without the Cross.”
r/ThomasPynchon • u/Fluffy-Complaint-977 • 8d ago
Starting the Pynchon journey thanks to my wife.
Big PTA fan, so he sort of led me here. Also, had to flex the new Sterling Cooper & Partners mug lol!
r/ThomasPynchon • u/pregnantchihuahua3 • 9d ago