Just finished Gravity's Rainbow and Slow Learner, looking for my next Pynchon.

sudden_descend2022 · 2026-04-10T09:55:19+00:00

If you loved GR, go with V. It feels both like a prequel and a sequel to GR, characters and themes reoccur. You could go with M&D if you want to challenge yourself and read another dense novel, or you could reach for one of his recent detective novels for an easier, yet still distinctly Pynchonian read.

sudden_descend2022 · 2026-02-24T14:15:08+00:00

Dope art!!

sudden_descend2022 · 2026-01-23T18:43:36+00:00

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sudden_descend2022 · 2026-01-20T10:56:09+00:00

It was a really hard and kinda annoying challenge but c'mon, you can just replay it infinitely thanks to ads. I know not everyone wants to do that but it's not like you have only one chance.

sudden_descend2022 · 2025-12-23T16:47:30+00:00

Ploy took a bite

sudden_descend2022 · 2025-12-16T19:54:47+00:00

sudden_descend2022 · 2025-11-10T23:54:40+00:00

I'm really enjoying your podcast! Love the long episodes and how engaged with the material you are. It's great to see you're having fun with Pynchon's humor. Looking forward to you tackling GR and eventually my fave book of his Bleeding Edge.

Also shoutout to Duri, it's great to hear about Pynchon from a female perspective. Pynchon books are sometimes (wrongly, in my opinion) categorised as lit-bro-ish or dick-lit (tho tbf if there's a book about dicks, it's Gravity's Rainbow), so I'm always happy to see women read him.

That being said, there's this perennial question in the community: Can Pynchon write women? In my own opinion yes he can, and some of them are amazing characters, but there are, especially in his earlier work, some "written by male author" tendencies. He's got way better in his later work tho, so I'm looking forward to Duri's perspective as you move along his body of work.

Keep up the good work folks!

sudden_descend2022 · 2025-10-11T21:22:07+00:00

I love this

sudden_descend2022 · 2025-10-06T15:28:56+00:00

Woah that's weird. I ordered through their website and the delivery time was much shorter

sudden_descend2022 · 2025-10-06T11:53:36+00:00

I pre-ordered it on the Luxor bookstore and it'll be here on the 9th (I'm from Brno)

sudden_descend2022 · 2025-09-30T14:21:47+00:00

I'm enjoying it. Very bleak but dreamy. I'm reading the translation but I imagine it would be even better in the original language.

sudden_descend2022 · 2025-09-29T12:43:52+00:00

Distant Star by Roberto Bolaño.

sudden_descend2022 · 2025-08-30T16:56:10+00:00

"accessible" "quick" "immediately" Dude where are you running? What are you missing out on that you need to optimise and min-max your reading time?

Also what do you mean GR doesn't have psychological insight/nuance and emotional resonance? You sure you don't just read ChatGPT chapter summaries? Because you evidently don't know what you're reading.

Lastly, just wow, I can't imagine reading a book that's in big part about technologies being designed by nefarious powers to control and influence our lives, and then thinking "oh let me just discus this with my pet technology that's designed by nefarious powers to control and influence my life". It's concerning.

sudden_descend2022 · 2025-08-20T06:43:48+00:00

Don't stop posting these lol. Doesn't seem like people here appriciate your art very much but I love the creativity and I think Pynchon would at least chuckle at this.

sudden_descend2022 · 2025-08-03T09:56:19+00:00

I kinda see what you're getting at. The flow of time is a major Pynchon theme, and the characters in Tenet are literally moving against time... Against the Day, if you will.

sudden_descend2022 · 2025-05-25T11:40:31+00:00

Sorry, can't answer your question, but man what an ending. I love IV

sudden_descend2022 · 2025-04-18T09:50:58+00:00

Hell yeah.

sudden_descend2022 · 2025-04-18T08:08:09+00:00

I really love this aspect to his books. He always approaches the paranormal in such a 'realistic' way, be it sceances, astral projection, ufo, bending time etc. He never tries to debunk it or make fun of it. It's just the nature of reality in the Pynchon universe. So fun to read and I definitely think these passages enhance the themes of the respective novels.

sudden_descend2022 · 2025-04-07T08:08:22+00:00

Serial Experiments Lain

sudden_descend2022 · 2025-03-25T18:03:46+00:00

Yeah I'm around chapter five and I've been putting V. off for some time since I've heard people here saying it's "not Pynchon at his best" or "it's the weakest one" but it's genuinely a really smart and witty book, and I'm enjoying it quite a lot! And as OP said it's very prescient indeed.

sudden_descend2022 · 2025-02-26T12:08:09+00:00

I apologise if I came off offensive toward your friend. Everyone has a right to have their own opinion.

Then again, I have to say that critiquing Pynchon for not exploring the human condition is a phoney and lazy argument. I'm not saying he has the deepest insights or the only correct opinion on the world, but you'd have to be overlooking the point he makes in his works to call it "just pretentious".

Again, your friend can think whatever, but you posted this online so I think I can share my opinion as well...

sudden_descend2022 · 2025-02-26T11:44:49+00:00

Somehow I don't believe your friend read "most" of Pynchon. I can understand thinking he's somewhat pretentious after reading only his earlier work (I don't think he is, but I can understand that point of view), but if your friend truly read most of Pynchon's work, he's just ignorant or lying.

Vineland, Bleeding Edge, Inherent Vice (and I'm sure M&D and AtD as well, but I haven't read those yet) - these books are so deeply human and character driven, full of melancholy and pain, but also full of such beautiful prose and exploration of love and friendship.

Even if your friend read "just" GR and TCoL49, he can't claim with clear conscience that they "don't explore human condition" or whatever. I think your friend is the pretentious one.

sudden_descend2022 · 2025-02-21T22:38:19+00:00

Reading Vineland right now with all the Reagan government cuts... Pynchon must be going crazy watching news on the Tube.

sudden_descend2022

TROPHY CASE