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Welcome goonlings to the Awful Book of the Month! In this thread, we choose one work of Resources: Project Gutenberg - http://www.gutenberg.org - A database of over 17000 books available online. If you can suggest books from here, that'd be the best. SparkNotes - http://www.sparknotes.com/ - A very helpful Cliffnotes-esque site, but much better, in my opinion. If you happen to come in late and need to catch-up, you can get great character/chapter/plot summaries here.  For recommendations on future material, suggestions on how to improve the club, or just a general rant, feel free to PM me. Past Books of the Month [for BOTM before 2015, refer to archives] 2015: January: Italo Calvino -- Invisible Cities February: Karl Ove Knausgaard -- My Struggle: Book 1. March: Knut Hamsun -- Hunger April: Liu Cixin -- 三体 ( The Three-Body Problem) May: John Steinbeck -- Cannery Row June: Truman Capote -- In Cold Blood (Hiatus) August: Ta-Nehisi Coates -- Between the World and Me September: Wilkie Collins -- The Moonstone October:Seth Dickinson -- The Traitor Baru Cormorant November:Svetlana Alexievich -- Voices from Chernobyl December: Michael Chabon -- Gentlemen of the Road 2016: January: Three Men in a Boat (To say nothing of the Dog!) by Jerome K. Jerome February:The March Up Country (The Anabasis) of Xenophon March: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco April: Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling May: Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima June:The Vegetarian by Han Kang July:Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees August: Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov September:Siddhartha by Herman Hesse October:Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse November:Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain December: It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis 2017: January: Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut February: The Plague by Albert Camus March: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin April: The Conference of the Birds (مقامات الطیور) by Farid ud-Din Attar May: I, Claudius by Robert Graves June: Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky July: Ficcionies by Jorge Luis Borges August: My Life and Hard Times by James Thurber September: The Peregrine by J.A. Baker October: Blackwater Vol. I: The Flood by Michael McDowell November: Aquarium by David Vann December: Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight [Author Unknown] 2018 January: Njal's Saga [Author Unknown] February: The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle March: Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders April: Twenty Days of Turin by Giorgio de Maria May: Lectures on Literature by Vladimir Nabokov June: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe July: Warlock by Oakley Hall August: All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriott September: The Magus by John Fowles October: I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara November: Arcadia by Tom Stoppard December: Christmas Stories by Charles Dickens 2019: January: Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky February: BEAR by Marian Engel Current:  V. by Thomas Pynchon Book available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005CRQ2V2/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 About the book: quote:V. is the debut novel of Thomas Pynchon, published in 1963. It describes the exploits of a discharged U.S. Navy sailor named Benny Profane, his reconnection in New York with a group of pseudo-bohemian artists and hangers-on known as the Whole Sick Crew, and the quest of an aging traveler named Herbert Stencil to identify and locate the mysterious entity he knows only as "V." It was nominated for a National Book Award. quote:In 2012 it emerged that there were multiple versions of V. in circulation. This was due to the fact that Pynchon's final modifications were made after the first edition was printed and thus were only implemented in the British, or Jonathan Cape, edition and the Bantam paperback. The fact was forgotten soon after in the U.S., so most US editions, including the newly released eBook, follow the first printing and are therefore unauthorized versions of the text, while the British editions, which follow the first edition printed by Jonathan Cape, contain Pynchon's final revisions. About the Author(s) quote:Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. (/ˈpɪntʃɒn/,[1] commonly /-tʃən/;[2] born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist. A MacArthur Fellow, he is noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, genres and themes, including history, music, science, and mathematics. For Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon won the 1973 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction.[3] quote:In an interview conducted after Pynchon’s first novel was published, Nabokov stated that Pynchon left no particular impression on him, and that he hardly even remembers him attending one of his courses. However, Nabokov’s wife Vera, who sometimes graded her husband’s class papers, said that Pynchon’s papers were memorable because of his unique style of handwriting. She stated that he used a weird mixture of printed and cursive letters; half printing, half script. https://www.thevintagenews.com/2017/02/03/influential-writer-thomas-pynchon-was-a-student-of-vladimir-nabokov-at-the-university-of-cornell/ Themes quote:But to read “V.” today is to experience Pynchon anew. Blast through the multilayered densities of “Gravity’s Rainbow,” “Mason & Dixon,” and “Against the Day,” and you have a young Cornell graduate, an engineer from Long Island, writing with an earnestness you might not have expected, about a world he could never recover. And though we think of Pynchon as the progenitor of postmodern irony, the novel’s central theme, as uttered by the jazz saxophonist McClintic Sphere, is one of sly but unmistakable sincerity: “Keep cool but care.” https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/v-at-l-pynchons-first-novel-turns-fifty Pacing Read as thou wilt is the whole of the law. Please post after you read! Please bookmark the thread to encourage discussion. References and Further Reading Page by page annotations for V., from the Pynchon Wiki (of course there's a wiki): https://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=V._Page_by_Page_Annotation Final Note: Thanks, and I hope everyone enjoys the book!
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Mar 6, 2019 00:31
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Nearly 100 pages in and have switched from the Profane to Stencil plot in Egypt, which I am enjoying immensely. I hope to figure out the code of the last names by the end. He was 26 when he wrote this.
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Mar 6, 2019 02:48
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Bilirubin posted:Nearly 100 pages in and have switched from the Profane to Stencil plot in Egypt, which I am enjoying immensely. I hope to figure out the code of the last names by the end. There is no code, but the names are not accidental, either. Here is an old monograph that delves into some of them, and also pulls in similar examples from GR.
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Mar 6, 2019 16:42
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mdemone posted:There is no code, but the names are not accidental, either. I'm going to try to avoid reading ancillary material until done, but thanks! But there has to be a code  Just read about the priest to the rats LMFAO
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Mar 7, 2019 05:03
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Beloved croc found dead, believed shot
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Mar 7, 2019 15:26
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I've read V. 3 times, I think it's his best work.
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Mar 7, 2019 18:01
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drat, I was hoping there'd be a free version, I can't justify the purchase atm.
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Mar 7, 2019 19:15
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Discendo Vox posted:drat, I was hoping there'd be a free version, I can't justify the purchase atm. also you can totally find a pdf for free if you really want to but you didn't hear that from me
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Mar 7, 2019 20:43
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I am really enjoying the reread, it feels like meeting an old friend. I am stoked for the Namibia chapter. That and the chapter in which the dude in Egypt goes bonkers. Those are my favorite parts.
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Mar 7, 2019 21:32
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Are we not mentioning the structure for new readers? V. is many things, but it is, funny enough, the actual structure of the episodes. One arm is the Benny Profane and the Whole Sick Crew adventures, the other arm are the episodes with Stencil or from his father’s notes. The two converge at the end of the novel, and the period is the Finale in Malta. Inherent Vice is my favorite Pynchon, because it’s everything I like in a novel, but V. is the one I think about all the time.
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Mar 10, 2019 15:06
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I am really enjoying it so far, and the structure seems pretty clear so far, at least to me. Its a much more accessible book than Gravity's Rainbow, being much less fantastic and prone to wandering diversions, and the language, while still vibrant, doesn't yet have that majesty of the later book, IMO of course. Its clearly by an extraordinarily talented writer first stretching his wings. The stories themselves are very entertaining to downright funny. I think the Stencil portion in particular is great because of this sort of communal willingness to go with his obsession.
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Mar 10, 2019 16:39
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Good book.
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Mar 11, 2019 19:43
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Just grabbed the book myself and I'm excited to dive in. I've only ever read Crying of Lot 49 and just re-read that earlier this year, so I'm excited to tackle another Pynchon.
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Mar 11, 2019 20:52
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I think I like V. best because it's clearly the work of a young writer, but it's also his first real work. The stories in Slow Learner, that he wrote before V. and which V. is kind of a compilation of, absolutely don't work on their own and really feel like a college kid wrote them. V. is when something somehow had just changed in him and he became good. It's a bit less polished and elaborate than GR or Against the Day but I just like it more because it has a bit more of a wide eyed mood and more enjoyable characters.
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Mar 11, 2019 22:37
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I'll have to do some digging, but I did a lot of write-ups about how V. is Thomas Pynchon's playful exploration of fiction and how we interact with fiction vs. history vs. present reality, and also how it's the perfect Post Modern novel, because it plays with the changes between Modern fiction and Post Modern. It was all in various threads, but I'll copy and paste them so everyone can see how silly I am.
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Mar 11, 2019 22:49
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BravestOfTheLamps posted:Good book. real good book
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Mar 12, 2019 04:06
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e: nevermind
chernobyl kinsman fucked around with this message at 06:31 on Mar 16, 2019 |
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Mar 12, 2019 04:29
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This may be a dumb question, but I don't really know anything about postmodernism, is there anything particularly important to know about it before diving into a postmodern novel? I'm always inclined to just Read The Book but I'm kind of an unschooled rube when it comes to literary movements and etc.
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Mar 12, 2019 04:33
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MockingQuantum posted:This may be a dumb question, but I don't really know anything about postmodernism, is there anything particularly important to know about it before diving into a postmodern novel? I'm always inclined to just Read The Book but I'm kind of an unschooled rube when it comes to literary movements and etc. Sham bam bamina! fucked around with this message at 04:46 on Mar 12, 2019 |
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Mar 12, 2019 04:42
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Postmodern literature also may make use of the form and structure of the text/literature itself to demonstrate the role of text in shaping subjective meaning-making and a lack of a single truth. iirc V doesn't do this as dramatically or bluntly as some other texts; Franchescanado's spoiler post above provides an example of this. In the hands of good authors these methods tie into and complement the text's content while providing a parallel; in the hands of bad authors they're a blunt hack move. The distinction is subjective, of course; House of Leaves is considered a masterclass in these techniques or the world's most pretentious garbage abuse of pomo methods depending on who you ask.
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Mar 12, 2019 16:13
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I read this a month ago, and I still can't get it out of my head, particularly the scene of Ben Profane and the robot. gently caress, I can't wait to read more of Pynchon's stuff.
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Mar 13, 2019 04:44
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Deep into the Siege Party now and 
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Mar 16, 2019 23:53
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The chapter about the siege of Malta/Paola's dad's letter was beautiful. Would love to dig deeper into the imagery of this section once folks finish--apparently Heironymus has a reference that can be consulted
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Mar 18, 2019 04:11
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Bilirubin posted:Deep into the Siege Party now and i had an easier time with the siege party here than the anubis party in gr tbh
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Mar 18, 2019 04:59
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Tree Goat posted:i had an easier time with the siege party here than the anubis party in gr tbh oh god yes. Especially the ending
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Mar 18, 2019 05:10
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The Paris ballet chapter. Holy poo poo.
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Mar 19, 2019 04:37
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Bilirubin posted:-apparently Heironymus has a reference that can be consulted Yeah, unfortunately I'm behind this month (caught up in some IRL things). I did post a link to a wiki in the OP which should be helpful. https://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=V._Page_by_Page_Annotation
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Mar 19, 2019 14:06
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Bilirubin posted:The Paris ballet chapter. Yeah, I remember that being such a visceral moment. Which chapter has the erotic rhinoplasty? That was also incredibly rough to read. Arguably worse than the castration in Gravity's Rainbow.
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Mar 19, 2019 14:12
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Franchescanado posted:Yeah, I remember that being such a visceral moment. Guessing 3 or 5? I don't even remember the castration in GR Hieronymous Alloy posted:Yeah, unfortunately I'm behind this month (caught up in some IRL things). I did post a link to a wiki in the OP which should be helpful. No worries, makes most sense to wait until folks finish before digging into analysis
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Mar 19, 2019 14:39
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Bilirubin posted:
Yup. Next month's book is going to be something "light" so that the discussion on this one can carry over for a while.
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Mar 19, 2019 15:19
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Yeah I'd definitely appreciate it if we kept this thread open after the month is over, I'm skeptical I'll finish the book until right near the end of the month, if that
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Mar 19, 2019 15:48
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Franchescanado posted:Yeah, I remember that being such a visceral moment. that's earlyish, chapter 4, and agreed. it's definitely worse for me to get through than the gr castration or the gr poo poo-eating
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Mar 19, 2019 16:54
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I'm continuously struck by how much is being introduced in V. that is continued or readdressed in Gravity's Rainbow. It's quite a lot, almost makes this read like a trial run for the latter, longer, work.
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Mar 19, 2019 17:55
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The paris ballet thing i always thought of as a display of pleasure-pain/jouissance that pynchon seems to associate with the proximity of war
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Mar 19, 2019 18:05
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Bilirubin posted:I'm continuously struck by how much is being introduced in V. that is continued or readdressed in Gravity's Rainbow. It's quite a lot, almost makes this read like a trial run for the latter, longer, work. i was initially keeping track of all the specific links (mondaugen, bodine, etc) and general repetitions (protagonist as schlemiel who becomes embedded with the nebulous and perhaps imaginary tendrils of the security state, the herero genocide, etc etc) but then i decided that probably somebody with a better and more relevant set of mental illnesses had already done that for me
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Mar 19, 2019 18:34
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Franchescanado posted:Yeah, I remember that being such a visceral moment. 4, "In which Esther gets a nose job"
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Mar 19, 2019 18:54
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Man, I wish I had the time this month to participate. I loved Lot 49, liked IV, liked bits of GR I'd read around, but have always picked different authors when I have time for a doorstop. Trying to get my hands on a Pynchon companion; this might be my cue. Slightly off-topic, but have people seen Impolex, the Alex Ross Perry film based on GR?
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Mar 20, 2019 03:23
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suspendedreason posted:Man, I wish I had the time this month to participate. I loved Lot 49, liked IV, liked bits of GR I'd read around, but have always picked different authors when I have time for a doorstop. Trying to get my hands on a Pynchon companion; this might be my cue. Get the Weisenburger companion to GR and read it in tandem with each chapter of the text.
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Mar 20, 2019 13:33
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Pynchon as a woman
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Mar 20, 2019 18:25
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So I looked up images of Pynchon because I didn't really believe that that was actually him in the Imgur link and then stumbled onto this article. It goes in a lot about his life, but this bit stood out to me because of the rhinoplasty thing:Vulture posted:After graduating near the top of his class, Pynchon declined a teaching fellowship but immediately applied for a Ford Foundation grant to write opera librettos. Perhaps it’s the sheer hubris of the application, which didn’t even propose a specific project, that led him, decades later, to suppress it—or the fact that it was part of a dream life that didn’t pan out. The 22-year-old’s competition included Robert Lowell and Richard Wilbur. While admitting he’d published only two stories (though boasting he had sold a third and been very well reviewed in the campus paper), Pynchon described his literary development with astonishing self-confidence: “a Tom Wolfe period, a Scott Fitzgerald period, a Byron period … a Henry James period, a Nelson Algren period, a Faulkner period,” and so on. He suggested he could make a libretto out of science-fiction stories, maybe Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles. (Pynchon grew up on the genre.) He had doubts about his lyrical talents, though “I have this guitar on which I occasionally kill time making up rock ‘n’ roll lyrics.” As for where he’d like to work, “Chicago is where my girl goes to school.” If true, Pynchon definitely did not handle that well. And it makes sense now -- that scene was so loving jarring that I legit thought I was hallucinating or something.
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Mar 21, 2019 13:43
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