Searching for Thomas Pynchon

I’m a little late on this story, but I thought I’d leave a few words about the solving of a puzzle at Adobe headquarters in San Jose. The puzzle was known as the San Jose Semaphore, and it’s been on display for over a year with LED lights displaying what appeared to be random semaphores. The code was recently cracked, and it turned out to be the complete text of Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 written out in code. No word yet on how many times the code was able to make it through the complete text of what is considered one of Pynchon’s lightest and most easily-accessible pieces of work during its time since installation.

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Each month, The New York Times selects a book to be featured for their online reading group. They do not have to be new releases, just books that have had an impact on the literary world. For the month of February, 2007, Thomas Pynchon’s magnum opus “Gravity’s Rainbow” was selected for this elite group.

The link below goes right to the discussion of this epic novel. New York Times readers tend to have more sophisticated tastes than readers of the Oklahoma Farmer’s Daily, so expect a lot of comments that actually delve deep into the content of this book, and very few people asking “what the hell this crap is about”. That’s important, because almost every discussion I’ve read regarding this book has been filled with comments from people who probably shouldn’t have picked up GR, let alone tried reading it.
LINK

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Artist Zak Smith read Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow and did something most of us would never even comtemplate trying: drawing one illustration for each page of the epic novel.

Although Gravity’s Rainbow is a book that few people truly understand, abstract art is something many people think they know. Zak Smith’s artwork for the book wasn’t exactly abstract; in many cases they were just drawings of very tangible descriptions from the novel, but put into the totality of the book it forms one incredible abstract creation.

There have been some legal problems with Smith’s book. Apparently someone, possible from Pynchon’s group, decided that the title might be misleading. I guess that’s understandable, because it does make it seem like it is Gravity’s Rainbow accompanied by illustrations. It is not, it’s just the illustrations. The title has now been changed and made even longer, so that it’s clear the book is drawings based on the book.

Some copies of Smith’s book were released before the name change. I’m told he did at least one book signing with the original title. If you can find one of these copies for a good price, it might be a good idea to pick it up.

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With “Against The Day” receiving mixed reviews, it’s important to present both sides. New York Times gave the book a thrashing last week, from a reviewer who claimed Pynchon had lost it, as if every page of “Gravity’s Rainbow” made perfect sense to him (even Pynchon admits that on some pages he was so drunk nothing meaningful should be taken from them). Mike Fischer of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is a bit more kind to the latest Pynchon.

Calling the book “masterful” and “epic,” Fischer was clearly enthralled with Pynchon’s unusual approach to history. Metaphors run rampant in Pynchon’s works, but some people would rather read a history book and learn the “facts.” Pychon likes to play with history and science like a ball of clay, and he’s made it clear that he is the one who owns it. No other writer living today can morph reality in so many complex ways while remaining an enjoyable read.

Fischer clearly sees things that way. I think of Pynchon as a William S. Burroughs-type writer, except more focused on technology than drugs. Burroughs once said something like “if you can’t figure out how I went from Interzone to Paris in a single paragraph, I can’t really help you.” Perhaps after years of reviewing books from the likes of James Patterson and ‘Da Vinci Dan’ Brown, reviewers from the likes of the New York Times have become soft. They need to have their hands held from page to page so they don’t encounter any literary danger, such as a sentence they can’t understand the first time they pass over it.

I don’t require every book reviewer to love Pynchon. I just want them to attempt to understand it. I have the same problem with movie reviewers. Should Roger Ebert review a film like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas? He trashed the movie and basically said it disgraced a literary classic, without making any direct references to the book. My gut tells me he never had the chance to read the book, because he lived through the 1950s three times and then skipped right into the 1980s.

Fischer is a Pynchon fan. It’s obvious from his review. I doubt there will be many reviewers who will read Pynchon’s back catalog before reviewing “Against The Day,” which probably decreases the chances it will get a good review. It’s obviously not a book for the casual reader of writers I’ve listed above, which is a group most reviewers fall into.  I just hope enough experienced Pynchon readers come out to review this book before it gets thrown in the dumpster.

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The early reviews of Thomas Pynchon’s most recent novel, Against the Day, are starting to come in, and it looks like this could be a real classic.

At well over 1,000 pages, this is Pynchon’s longest work, and it meanders through time and space in typical Pynchonian fashion. Although it may be too long and quirky for the casual reader, this is sure to be a hit with fans of Thomas Pynchon, and there are many. Strange inventions and incidents abound in what may be the greatest Pynchon work since Gravity’s Rainbow. That’s saying a lot, as Vineland and Mason & Dixon were not exactly literary slouches.

For someone unfamiliar with Pynchon and a lot of time on their hands, this might be the book to start reading. It’s a good example of his style, but not nearly as abstract as Gravity’s Rainbow and with more intriguing subject matter than most of his other novels, including the Tunguska Event, silent film-era Hollywood, and the inventions of Nikola Tesla.

Let your imagination run wild as Pynchon creates his masterful imagery of some very important events of the 19th and 20th centurys while tying them all together in his weird ways.

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With the publication of the first Thomas Pynchon novel in nearly 10 years, Penguin Press is faced with a dilemna. The 1,120 page epic is sure to be a hit with many reviewers and Pynchon’s loyal fanbase, but how do they go about promoting this book when the author will not do a book tour, will not go on The Daily Show or Oprah, will not even be photographed?

The book, titled Against The Day, is the first Pynchon since Mason & Dixon in 1997. A quote on Amazon.com posted earlier this year was reportedly from Pynchon himself:
“Spanning the period between the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 and the years just after World War I, this novel moves from the labor troubles in Colorado to turn-of-the-century New York, to London and Gottingen, Venice and Vienna, the Balkans, Central Asia, Siberia at the time of the mysterious Tunguska Event, Mexico during the Revolution, postwar Paris, silent-era Hollywood, and one or two places not strictly speaking on the map at all. With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred.”

That’s about as much as you’ll get from Pynchon as far as promotion. Although the book will probably go over the heads of most Americans, who seem to have an insatiable apetite for anti-Bush bashings or Liberal smashing. Perhaps someday they’ll put down the ranting neo-politicos and actually read something intellectual. When they do, Pynchon will be there. No camera, please.

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The question/answer to a $2000 Jeopardy clue tonight was Thomas Pynchon. The clue revolved around the connection between Pynchon and Nathaniel Hawthorne families. Read more about their ties in the trackback link.

Although I doubt Pynchon likes it when his name is mentioned via a mass media outlet like Jeopardy, I’m glad to see him getting recognition. In order to be pop trivia, you’ve got to first become popular.

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The truth is, I don’t exactly know. Few people do. The only time the name Thomas Pynchon enters the public mind is when he releases a new book, or when he makes a guest appearance on The Simpsons.

That said, there will be a renewed interest in Pynchon in the coming months as his newest book, Against The Day, is scheduled to be published in November of this year. People will be looking for pictures of the reclusive author, and they’ll find it’s a lot harder than they think.

Pynchon has rarely been photographed, and the newest confirmed photos of the man were taken when he was in high school, over 50 years ago. It’s believed he lives in Manhattan with his wife and one child. He may have been inadvertantly caught on camera when CNN taped a stock “sidewalk traffic” scene for a news story set in Manhattan over 10 years ago, but it’s been difficult to prove that the man was actually Pynchon. I’ll have more on that story at a later date.

If you think you’ve seen Pynchon and have some sort of evidence to back it up, please post it here, either in the comments (which I’ll read and repost if worthy), or via email at damox02 at damox.com.