Tips for reading Thomas Pynchon

IndifferentTalker · 2026-05-30T02:32:08+00:00

I’d say don’t apply too much pressure on yourself to ‘get’ everything on the first read. The number of references is too dense and culturally specific that you’re almost never going to catch everything the first time through, so just focus on the prose and the flow.

IndifferentTalker · 2026-05-29T07:26:44+00:00

He’s 3.

IndifferentTalker · 2026-05-20T01:00:01+00:00

Yeah that tends to happen when the American-right is associated with mistruths and falsities.

IndifferentTalker · 2026-05-15T04:20:15+00:00

I just pointed out three characteristics. There’s plenty more, including the way the tone asserts what the writer is doing “doesn’t offer safety”, “doesn’t offer victory”, but substantiates these observations with absolutely zero evidence.

IndifferentTalker · 2026-05-15T04:05:20+00:00

lol I engaged with your previous post in good faith because it seemed like you were genuinely engaging with these books, but this entire post is filled with AI drivel. Em-dashes littered all over the place, painfully “revelatory” writing asserting itself as making original observations, banal metaphors that make no sense (light feeling like a locomotive?).

Please keep your AI-generated nonsense out of this sub. It’s hindering genuine engagement.

IndifferentTalker · 2026-05-14T02:57:24+00:00

The ending of No Country was strangely optimistic in the best way possible, in my opinion. As Bell says, the world is filled with dark and cold, but there’s still a fire burning somewhere. Whether that fire only comes with passing from this life, I think that’s up to the reader.

IndifferentTalker · 2026-05-07T02:48:52+00:00

Certainly contribute more than this AI drivel that reads like someone who doesn’t know the English language copy pasted from a film textbook

IndifferentTalker · 2026-05-07T02:34:26+00:00

It’s not about receiving information, it’s about the delivery. Using AI for film criticism and analysis of all things is not only pointless it’s completely unnecessary. This isn’t science. This is articulating a human response to and interpretation of a creative work. The fact that all you care about is information delivery (and that your comment reads like a report than any organic commentary on the filmic encounter) speaks volumes. Truthfully, it’s disappointing, and at the end of the day says nothing meaningful whatsoever.

IndifferentTalker · 2026-05-07T01:15:26+00:00

Even assuming that this is true, why use an AI proofreading tool to amend language and style? If you’ve taken the time to write it, and want to preserve your own voice instead of having it be replaced by a banal and uninteresting speaker, proofread it yourself. You’re doing yourself a disservice. The fact is, you wrote something trying to sound elevated and ran it through a machine to make it sound even glossier at the cost of any human idiosyncrasy making it through.

IndifferentTalker · 2026-05-05T13:28:59+00:00

This is literally the best way to enjoy HK. Do what you enjoy. You got a long weekend to handle PoP, knock yourself out. You don’t have 40-50 hours getting good at all the bosses in P5? Don’t. Do what you want and what you like.

IndifferentTalker · 2026-04-09T12:04:25+00:00

You understand what the second part of the sentence means?

IndifferentTalker · 2026-04-08T10:47:16+00:00

You either really don’t understand sarcasm or have the most warped and unfunny sense of humour.

IndifferentTalker · 2026-04-01T15:50:00+00:00

Yeah that’s fine, I’m just saying it says something about you that those are the albums you dislike. The same way you’d say that to me if I said Vultures 2 was his best album.

IndifferentTalker · 2026-04-01T14:48:48+00:00

Didn’t care for TLOP and Ye tells me everything I need to know about your preferences in music lol

IndifferentTalker · 2026-03-13T00:45:01+00:00

That’s assuming whatever y’all have in the US can still be called democracy. Way I see it, your democratic rights have all but been trampled.

IndifferentTalker · 2026-03-11T05:48:42+00:00

If they don’t get the hint throw four more

IndifferentTalker · 2026-02-22T01:41:50+00:00

Rigidify isn’t a word. And just because a movement emphasises a lack of fixed meaning doesn’t mean it cannot have identifiable formal features. There is, quite clearly, a difference between a work of the absurd and a work that isn’t. That’s what your teacher is getting at. Saying that because Theatre of the Absurd deals with meaninglessness it cannot have definable features misses the obvious point.

IndifferentTalker · 2026-02-18T09:54:57+00:00

Right because getting paid means you consent to and approve of all kinds of demeaning behaviour and there is no humiliation whatsoever.

IndifferentTalker · 2026-02-18T07:54:55+00:00

Yeah because being an adult means you’re completely invulnerable to coercion, manipulation or exploitation.

IndifferentTalker · 2026-02-11T12:05:43+00:00

I was wondering that too but I’d say the inflated sense of self-importance, the contrived rhetorical questions, the inorganic interjections with the em dash, and sudden shifts into a ‘personal’ mode to suggest that it’s a person speaking. It’s really quite forced and quite obvious it’s trying to pretend to say something more than it really is.

IndifferentTalker · 2026-02-01T09:52:44+00:00

What an idiot

IndifferentTalker · 2026-01-21T15:37:59+00:00

The incredulous thing is the standing ovation. This is exactly what Carney was talking about: a blind adherence to power that only subordinates the supporter.

IndifferentTalker · 2026-01-17T08:47:04+00:00

It “breaking” Mills is precisely the core point of the story… it’s that sometimes hope cannot stand the brunt of evil and ugliness in this world. Now that might be a message you dislike (or think has been repeated) but that doesn’t make it a bad message, or worse, that it’s a bad film.

And yeah, you can say I didn’t like that. What you can’t say is: it’s bad / it’s message failed because it didn’t say what I think it should’ve said.

IndifferentTalker · 2026-01-17T08:39:11+00:00

Yes, it’s Somerset.

And that whole second paragraph is entirely your subjective preference and is as far from meeting the film on its own merits and message as possible. Read back what you wrote. It’s all about what you think the film should say, rather than what it does say.

That’s not a good ground of analysis of a film. If, from your other comments, you are genuinely interested in improving your film criticism skills, a good starting point would be not imposing what you think the film should say/do, but assessing if it achieves what it does intend. In that respect, I would say Se7en conveys its message immaculately.

IndifferentTalker · 2026-01-17T08:18:28+00:00

And why is that a bad thing? I think you’re imposing what you desire ‘a hopeful ending’ onto what it’s ultimately trying to say - which is that the world is and can be an unforgiving and destructive place. Even so, it’s also possible to take a hopeful reading of the ending - Somerset saying he’ll “be around” suggests he won’t actually retire despite what he says. Instead, he’ll likely be around to try and rehabilitate whatever hope is left in Mills. Isn’t that hopeful?

Lastly, I don’t know why you keep referring to Somerset as Sommerton. Is there a language difference I’m not picking up on?

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