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

Hey y'all, I'd love to hear if you have any recommendations for books with similar vibes as the stuff from The White Visitation parts of Gravity's Rainbow.

Something about the old mental hospital serving as a esoteric headquarters where science, military, and mysticism meet really interests me.

This move is great and strikes me as Pynchon-like in its absurd humor and zaniness.

What are some other Pynchon adjacent movies?

For context I have only read TCOL49 (The Crying of Lot 49)

I was planning to read GR (Gravity’s Rainbow) next.

But I am a big film person and am excited for PTA’s (Paul Thomas Anderson) upcoming (loose?) adaption of VL (Vineland).

So I am considering reading it next in advance of the film, making it my second Pynchon book read.

Is this okay? Will anyone be mad at me? Will I be arrested or something? Thank you.

For those out of the loop; there is apparently a Bay Area Rationalist cult murdering people over Veganism and Fringe Decision Theories.

https://zizians.info/

https://openvallejo.org/2025/01/27/suspects-in-killings-of-vallejo-witness-vermont-border-patrol-agent-connected-by-marriage-license-extreme-ideology/

Howdy Weirdos,

It's Wednesday once more, and if you don't know what the means, I'll let you in on a little secret: another thread of Casual Discussion!

This is our weekly thread dedicated to discussing whatever we want to outside the realm of Thomas Pynchon and tangentially-related subjects.

Every week, you're free to utilize this thread the way you might an "unpopular opinions" or "ask reddit"-type forum. Talk about whatever you like.

Feel free to share anything you want (within the r/ThomasPynchon rules and Reddit TOS) with us, every Wednesday.

Happy Reading and Chatting,

- r/ThomasPynchon Moderator Team

If the V2 rocket strikes wherever Slothrop has sex, why didn't it strike at the Casino? Or does it only apply in London?

Hey everyone -

I am nearing the end of Inherent Vice, and have really loved every moment of this book. Can you recommend more books (fiction or non-fiction) that have a similar vibe?

I'm not talking so much about the noir, private eye aspect, although I do like that, too. I'm talking more about the vibe of that time and place, southern California of the late '60s and early '70s.

There's also this vibe that I've picked up in some other books and movies, that I can't quite describe, but it's this kind of post-Manson family feeling that the hippie dream was dead, kind of a harsh return to reality or at least a re-evaluation. Not sure that makes sense. It's there in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, for example.

Anyway, I'm thinking surfing, psychedelic rock, acid, hippie New Age-y stuff, lefty politics, etc.

Thanks in advance!

PS. Just wanna reiterate that non-fiction recs are welcome, too!

Literally took me writing out this post to spot the difference

Having read all of Pynchon I think this section in GR is some of his finest writing. Debate, concur,disagree?

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

Thanks

https://thefilmstage.com/paul-thomas-andersons-one-battle-after-another-test-screens-confirmed-to-be-modern-update-on-vineland/

Saw some posts of the sandwich from Inherent Vice and was wondering if anyone has tried to recreate this abomination of a pizza from chapter 23 of Mason & Dixon?

Recipe for "arguably the first British Pizza" (paraphrased)

• 1 Brown Batch Loaf: rising since Morning, slapped into a "very thin Disk of remarkable Circularity."
• 1 Bottle of Malay Ketjab [not to be confused with later tomato based ketchups, rather some thick sticky soy-sauce adjacent stuff imported from Cape Town]
• Anchovies - "West Channel ‘Chovies from Devon, pickl’d in Brine" to be specific.
• Stilton Cheese - whatever is leftover "from the Ploughman’s lunch"

Cook in a baking oven over the time it takes to drink “several rounds.”

Enjoy!

I saw & I recommend the new bio-pic on Bob Dylan: A Complete Unknown (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A\_Complete\_Unknown). Well done.

I post this trailing bit from the biography of Jean Shepherd (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean\_Shepherd) that says Shepherd, like most great creative artists, was an absolute ass-hole to his friends and family, as was the Bob Dylan portrayed in the subject movie.

I wonder: We will discover after his demise that TRP was an absolute ass-hole to his friends and family?

I first became disillusioned with geniuses upon reading Ellmann's biography of James Joyce [( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Joyce_(biography) ] & concluding then that one would have been well not to have known Joyce either as a friend or as a family member: That guy was a complete ass-hole to such. My own brother identifies as an "artist" and is an absolute ass-hole to me and his other blood relatives. Does that come with the territory?

I've read portions of TRP's niece's biography that portray her "Uncle Tom" as anything but such an ass-hole. That one time I've passed TRP in real life (although I did not know it at the time) he did not come across as such an ass-hole, but rather just as a Dude Having Fun.

I'm just posing this out there: Will we readers find after his death that TRP was a complete ass-hole to his friends and family? (cf: Cormac McCarthy and his Muse: https://www.vanityfair.com/style/story/cormac-mccarthy-secret-muse-exclusive )

TRP's connection to the Baez family (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimi\_Fari%C3%B1a) was not mentioned in the subject movie, but then again, why would he allow such a mention?

Thanks for letting me so muse.

https://preview.redd.it/crogwwqx3vee1.jpg?width=819&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=14b7552b2ccc195cae3a34c84ea3add386193318

Hey guys, I just started my second Pynchon novel (after Gravity's Rainbow). I couldn't find a satisfactory answer online so I thought I would ask it here. Sorry if the question doesnt fit the subreddit. In Gravity's Rainbow, in addition to the four sections the book is separated in—Beyond the Zero to The counterforce—the book also had chapters which were indicated by those small boxes. Is that present in this novel as well? I ask because I just finished the part where the Chums of Chance rescue Chick from the Klan. Specifically where Chick notes: “if you keep going far enough north, eventually you pass over the Pole, and then you’re heading south again." Is this is the end of "chapter 1"

Howdy y’all! As I’m following along to this past group read I saw in chapter 19 it states Mason and cherrycokes have a conversation specifically in the chapter . I can’t find anywhere in the chapter where that is true. Now I’m just second guessing everything and contemplating life… help!