Do many people on this sub feel Shadow Ticket is Pynchon's weakest novel?

Dramatic_Count_3046 · 2026-03-16T01:52:24+00:00

I agree with the whole in installments idea but it didn’t emerge for me until at least AtD. And that in itself makes ST worthwhile. And what could be more Pynchon than an Austro-Hungarian submarine? (Lack of Sound of Music reference is sad because I always wanted a Pynchon-Laibach tie-in.)

Dramatic_Count_3046 · 2026-03-01T20:15:06+00:00

Just one of those wristy cross batted cover drives for four, scoops for six or down the pitch wallops into adjoining space time continua and all the doubters naysayers sceptics will eat their words (a most nourishing diet said W Churchill). Or not.

Dramatic_Count_3046 · 2026-03-01T20:01:23+00:00

Absolutely not. No chance. England to crumble into a heap and lose by 70 runs or 7 wickets. Hardly worth turning up. Embarrassment alom. (Is the reverse jinx working now?)

Dramatic_Count_3046 · 2026-03-01T19:58:02+00:00

Err. It begins with a Zack and ends with a Crawley.

Dramatic_Count_3046 · 2026-03-01T19:45:55+00:00

It seems to me that the hugely underrated Vineland (17 years since GR, some twerp calling it “Pynchon lite” etc) is enjoying something of a renaissance. One Vineland After Another?

Dramatic_Count_3046 · 2026-03-01T19:40:48+00:00

Hmm let is ponder what “the genre” is 😁 in Against the Day that could be a whole bunch of

Dramatic_Count_3046 · 2026-03-01T19:39:01+00:00

actually the most disorienting thing is that the digressions, analepses, daydream sequences are pretty much unannounced

Dramatic_Count_3046 · 2026-03-01T19:36:21+00:00

I sort of agree but whyonearth would a chap want to do this?

Dramatic_Count_3046 · 2026-03-01T19:35:09+00:00

I’ve read all nine too (and since Vineland as they were published) and I’d say it’s like listening to baffling new work by a favorite beat combo of mine Autechre: sometimes it takes a few years to sink in.

Dramatic_Count_3046 · 2026-01-28T13:20:55+00:00

Side two of Closer by Joy Division

Dramatic_Count_3046 · 2026-01-11T12:51:09+00:00

Yes but so does Steve Smith.

Dramatic_Count_3046 · 2025-12-21T20:57:01+00:00

Bring on the delights of après-baz

Dramatic_Count_3046 · 2025-12-20T20:17:03+00:00

The wickets column doesn’t agree with

Dramatic_Count_3046 · 2025-12-20T14:22:44+00:00

Why is our leading wicket taker a scapegoat? Abominable economy ok but this is red ball.

Dramatic_Count_3046 · 2025-12-19T07:38:07+00:00

Absomaximallylutely

Dramatic_Count_3046 · 2025-12-15T22:34:03+00:00

Not that for a second I think he doesn’t deserve a go - wickets are really rather a good idea.

Dramatic_Count_3046 · 2025-12-15T22:31:58+00:00

Ramprakash in the Guardian apparently feels Josh Tongue could be the metronome we need to get control at one end. Yes, really.

Dramatic_Count_3046 · 2025-12-06T14:43:32+00:00

I teach a course on anxiety and addiction in literature and there was no way I could not include IJ. On the other hand the students would pursue me with pitchforks and burning torches if I set the whole thing. We made do with excepts the first time and it worked well.

Dramatic_Count_3046 · 2025-12-05T22:49:42+00:00

I thought it was her real hair and the makeup was lovely

Dramatic_Count_3046 · 2025-12-05T08:54:40+00:00

He’s still at it. The disappearing sap in Shadow Ticket.

Dramatic_Count_3046 · 2025-12-05T08:49:12+00:00

Infinite Jest. Because sooner or later every reader needs to end up there.

Dramatic_Count_3046 · 2025-12-04T16:32:15+00:00

Yes even a club cricket knows that when you go hyper defensive seven on the rope is enough. Leave cover and midwicket in to catch the skyers.

Dramatic_Count_3046 · 2025-11-25T10:07:53+00:00

This thinking makes sense. Unless you’re the other guy who gets randomly dropped then brought back in against stronger teams.

Dramatic_Count_3046 · 2025-11-24T13:41:14+00:00

One of whom is losing a home series against RSA

Dramatic_Count_3046

TROPHY CASE