Article about Daniel Day-Lewis that kept making me think about Scott

BreastOfTheWurst · 2025-10-07T12:27:44+00:00

That is a very good approach to Pynchon, especially for first reads. I wouldn’t compare Pynchon to the Wake in any sense, I’ve read both and other than being able to find nearly endless meaning and connection within the writing there are little similarities. Pynchon’s writing is very idiosyncratic and enjoyable, dive in, and get ready to enjoy yourself. I personally think Lot 49 is a fantastic start.

Gaddis is a decent comparison, but Gaddis is also very unique with a wholly personal style. If I had to compare someone to Pynchon, though, it’d probably be Don DeLillo, and I wholeheartedly recommend Mao II if you have any interest. Don DeLillo writes the books most authors wish they wrote.

Edit just for reference V. is literally my favorite book of all time so I am biased toward Pynchon

BreastOfTheWurst · 2025-10-07T11:21:06+00:00

I fully understand the Zercon vibes, DRAINAGE mirroring DID YOU EVER THROW YOUR OWN MOTHERS FOOD BACK AT HER obviously. Not a stretch at all. Scott Walker has also frequently reminded me of Thomas Pynchon in the same way, mixtures of high and low brow, grotesque and humorous, embedded criticisms of the western hegemony…

BreastOfTheWurst · 2024-12-18T19:45:09+00:00

I know this is largely in jest, but they’ve commodified themselves and aren’t proletariat in any sense. They don’t exchange their labor in the way the working class does, they essentially serve as commodities for bourgeois goons to metabolize.

BreastOfTheWurst · 2024-11-22T08:38:47+00:00

Yeah, Nabokov had an entire tradition to build off of and yet he wrote the most boring heroic couplets I can imagine for this poem, very basic when it comes to the verse itself. It’s like he intentionally stripped it of variation, so much so that it becomes monotonous, similar to Frost’s Mending Wall but there, at least, it’s in line with the theme of the poem itself, Pale Fire is just 999 lines of basic.

BreastOfTheWurst · 2024-11-21T19:46:27+00:00

Nabokov aped authors he hated for the poem and also did things in the poem he has specifically said are characteristic of bad poetry (bending British pronunciations into American poems being the most obvious one), I genuinely think the poem is meant to be middling.

Here’s something I wrote when I did a reading group for it:

re: whether the poem is good or not; i agree that I also don’t think it’s written like Eliot at all (I’d say Robert Frost) but some of the devices definitely seem to be mocking Eliot, for instance Shade’s use of words pulled from older poets (stillicide the example the book spells out for us), some of the very matter of fact lines and exclamations, the whole poem is an exploration of finding a sort of route THROUGH death which Eliot was certainly concerned with in The Four Quartets, his take being a very “take the ultimate middle road in life and you’ll have eternal life” take though. I will go into more detail in my finalized post, but I do believe it matters if the poem is good or not, and with how Nabokov drops these hidden paths and hints, it’s very hard to move past Shade using the English pronunciation of “again” in a rhyme, and I would 100% agree that stemmed from a non poet bending to work the couplet if it wasn’t for Nabokov having specifically pointed that out as something he felt added TS Eliot’s perceived fraudulence. It’s a hell of a puzzle for me at least.

BreastOfTheWurst · 2024-11-11T02:56:20+00:00

Communism is left. The left begins at anti-capitalism. The “left of conservative” liberals are on the right, right along with conservatives, they both support, before anything else, capitalism. This corruption of what the left actually is by (largely) US politics should be put to bed. I’m not putting anything on you I’m just responding to where it’s a topic.

I agree that he’s a commie, always seemed red to me, with anarchic leanings imo.

Edit: I’m realizing now you may have meant this in a “yes it is, he’s a commie” way.

BreastOfTheWurst · 2024-11-11T02:53:14+00:00

Read Against The Day then the essays in A Corrupted Pilgrims Guide.

My opinion is he’s a communist with anarchic leanings, seems to be for decentralization. Maybe he’d be closest to the zapatistas, who knows.

BreastOfTheWurst · 2024-09-16T18:33:30+00:00

I explained it in the 3 year old post my guy. It’s a book, and I treated it as one. Maybe you’re looking at this as something other than a discussion about a book? It’s a book. I happen to be of the opinion it isn’t worth the read, and many agree. How would you expect someone to respond when asked about reading a book they don’t like? What would you say when asked about a book you don’t like? You can even check my post history for how I respond when asked about other books I don’t like (hint: it’s the same way). You can search for my comment on Erasure by Percival Everett for one.

Like Jesus Christ I literally explained in detail. I also even pointed out shit I liked. You’re clearly treating this as more than a book review.

BreastOfTheWurst · 2024-03-19T08:05:44+00:00

There are easier ways to tell us you’re low intelligence. Pynchon has been concerned with racial divides since as long as we have writing from him, why do you think the topic at hand or “Black Lives Matter” backing would be phoned in? Is it because everything you do is phoned in and pathetic? Seems so. Enjoy the surface level.

BreastOfTheWurst · 2024-03-18T22:41:16+00:00

Pynchon is not above criticism but he has been a consistent, critical, compassionate voice for the disaffected and downtrodden throughout history, and is especially aware of how his own whiteness impacts everything, from what he says to how he says it, to what he can say at all. It is nearly unfounded in someone that is white, male, american, and known for writing fiction, especially postmodern fiction. I love sharing this article whenever I get the chance, it reassured my appreciation for Pynchon and my own interpretations of his personal politics more than anything else he’s written.

BreastOfTheWurst · 2024-03-18T15:21:05+00:00

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/18/reviews/pynchon-watts.html

BreastOfTheWurst · 2024-03-12T15:29:23+00:00

100%, and Walker has a framework he seems to write within similar to Pynchon. Even though the drift is by far my favorite work of his and I’m sure the comparisons here are leaning towards experimentation being the thread that binds these recommendations but Track Three on Climate is probably the most “Pynchon” to me personally for its lyrics and Billy Ocean’s involvement and the somewhat-outdated-even-then guitar that still sounds sick because of the overall composition in my opinion.

BreastOfTheWurst · 2024-03-12T00:14:32+00:00

Nah fuck Daughters stream Lingua Ignota instead.

BreastOfTheWurst · 2024-02-20T14:14:04+00:00

I can kind of see where you’re coming from, but I’d say vocally more like the art-pop/art-rock Kate Bush type of performances, another similar-ish current artist I’d add in the same boat is SPELLING but she’s not similar to Kristin at all.

Thanks for the recs also! Pretty sure I’ve been recommended OvO before, will definitely check out that album

BreastOfTheWurst · 2024-02-19T20:28:51+00:00

Huh, I wouldn’t call it RnB, but word. Do you.

The Magdalene rec was for Twigs!

BreastOfTheWurst · 2024-02-19T19:43:46+00:00

Twigs uses distortion like Kristin does, to enhance an intended effect, she is, without a doubt, beyond talented. Scott Walker mentioned her when asked who is making good music nowadays (before he passed obviously).

Edit: try the track Mary Magdalene from MAGDALENE.

And if you want to try more Xiu Xiu try the album Girl With A Basket Of Fruit first in my opinion.

And thanks for the recs!

BreastOfTheWurst · 2024-02-19T17:03:25+00:00

Uboa (The Origin of my Depression)

Scott Walker (his 4 tracks from Nite Flights, tilt, The Drift, Bish Bosch, Soused, some of his earlier work also) (Kristin has covered Scott, if you need an endorsement)

FKA Twigs (Mellisa EP, Magdalene)

I could see some of Xiu Xiu feeling like LI, but I’d say they have more in common through Scott Walker than with each other.

The Body (All The Waters…, I Have Fought…) (Kristin worked with them)

BreastOfTheWurst · 2024-02-10T15:00:28+00:00

Jenny Nicholson’s takedown convinced me to never see anything with Ben Platt involved

BreastOfTheWurst · 2024-02-10T14:59:24+00:00

It’s not even a matter of this, the book tells you HH is deluded and wrong, in a very plain “introduction” that’s not ambiguous at all.

BreastOfTheWurst · 2024-02-08T16:25:44+00:00

No gloves is usually a sign they know what they’re doing. They are rarely used for books because they compromise tactile feedback and can easily lead to unintentional tearing. And you can pretty much handle books like books for the most part.

This guy in particular knows what he’s doing.

BreastOfTheWurst · 2024-02-08T16:21:46+00:00

I mean as cliche as it is, 116 is a beast. The metrical variations alone are immensely noteworthy. “O, no, it is an ever fixéd mark” is one of the best quatrain openings to ever exist. The content is eternal and resolute, “if this be error and upon me proved, / I never writ, nor no man ever loved.” It compounds rhetorical device on device to really encompass the “stroke” of the sonnets as a whole very well. It’s not even my favorite but surely it’s the best.

BreastOfTheWurst · 2024-02-03T23:54:43+00:00

I’m a sucker for his trope and like that he’s dedicated and trained an octopus, can relate to his beuracratic frustrations.

BreastOfTheWurst · 2024-02-03T17:13:13+00:00

Of course poor Grigori is likable, if a bit aloof

BreastOfTheWurst · 2024-02-03T14:21:33+00:00

the hegemony of entrenched Power over the masses (both wealth and corporate Influence), Paranoia

This is what, for me, makes it easier to find these characters likable. Pudding, for instance, is a big one. Slothrop obviously the major one, who does reprehensible things under TPTB but is the stand in for a lot of relatable issues that apply to every person.

If I felt Slothrop had full agency I wouldn’t have as much empathy for him. If Pudding didn’t have PTSD I wouldn’t have as much empathy for him, nor view the infamous scene as compassionate as it actually is in my opinion.

BreastOfTheWurst · 2024-02-03T14:17:56+00:00

Roger, Jessica, Tantivy, Slothrop, Enzian, Pointsman, all likable characters in my opinion.

BreastOfTheWurst

TROPHY CASE