The Thomas Pynchon Myth
Thomas Pynchon is a reclusive author—or so we are told. Vice unearths the origins of Pynchon’s famous isolation, attributing the legend to the Paris Review‘s George Plimpton: It all started…
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Thomas Pynchon
24 posts
Will Pynchon Surface?
With Inherent Vice the centerpiece of the New York Film Festival, Logan Hill sits down with the director, Paul Thomas Anderson, for the New York Times. He seems particularly eager…
Pynchon’s Paranoiac Vision
In 1966, when The Crying of Lot 49 was published, Pynchon’s “all-ecompassing paranoiac vision of history” seemed “so kooky” and “far-fetched.” Fast forward to 2013, and Pynchon’s Bleeding Edge, a…
Less Face, More Book for These Reclusive Authors
Though it can be hard to remember between tweeting at your favorite writer and joining a Facebook event page for a reading, there was a time when many authors led…
The Brewing Of Lot 49
How did Los Angeles, that haven of low-culture and strip mall malaise beat us (San Francisco) to the punch with high-brow coffee? (I jest. L.A. is great if you want…
If Only Nothing Would Grow
It isn’t lyrical, it isn’t fun, it isn’t a spectacle, it doesn’t beg for your attention—Nog honestly considers the absurdity and sadness of everyday life.
Some Kind of 29th-Century Sci-Fi Lobster
Over at New York Magazine, Sam Anderson (interviewed here) has published a review of Inherent Vice that is one of the funniest pans of a novel I’ve ever read. “There is…
Lethem on the “Squandered Promise” of Science Fiction
“In 1973 Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow was awarded the Nebula, the highest honor available in the field once known as “science fiction” — a term now mostly forgotten. “Sorry, just…
Thomas Pynchon’s Summer Read
Inherent Vice is “a noir-like novel set in Los Angeles at the end of the 1960s” that follows “a dope-smoking private detective named Larry ‘Doc’ Sportello.” It is 384 pages…
The Rumpus Sunday Book Blog Roundup
This week, the book blogs are obsessed. They really, really want to tell you everything about William Vollman and Thomas Pynchon and their new wondrous masterpieces of weird. I love both…
The Sunday Book Blog Roundup
Greetings and salutations! I’m Michael Berger, today’s guest-editor. I’ve spent my last few days off sipping coffee and drifting through the labyrinth of book blogs. Which was terrific, because most…
The Rumpus Original Combo: Colson Whitehead
A review of Sag Harbor, followed by an interview with Colson Whitehead—or, as we like to call this literary twofer: The Rumpus Original Combo.