/lit/ - Literature

Sometimes you just need a paycheck, and this one was it.

>>7053042
Ubik for hipsters

>>7053042
It seems to me that this book was... WASTEd... on you.

I don't think its about the end goal of reading the book, more like its the strange journey it takes you on where you are in a state of not really knowing if you underst

>>7053064
>if you underst
I think the Trystero got him.

>>7053042
Pynchon cops out by making WASTE definitely real. Is it Tristero, is it just WASTE, nobody cares because they could easily just be related somewhere down the line and nobody's really sure because there's no central authority that Oedipa's going to get anywhere close to. Anybody buying the Trystero stamps will have plausible deniability.

The real question is whether Oedipa is drunk most of the book or not. Remember that she starts out drunk and gets drunk again with Metzger. She's very much on a high horse about everybody else doing illegal drugs, so having her be tipsy would be a very Pynchon thing to do.

Kind of reminded me of that Borges story Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius. I think he did intend to confundle the reader who looks for deeper meanings in things like names.

>>7053174
but while Borges stories start to make sense at the end Pynchon drops the ending where it all ties together.

Do you guys think she died at the end? I hope she didn't

this many replies already and nobody's mentioned the Torquato Tasso thread

>>7053164
>The real question is whether Oedipa is drunk most of the book or not.
>>7053042
>Is the Tristero real or imagined?

I swear the true intentions of Pynchon's value goes over the head of like 98% of his readers

Pynchon is not this 'face-value', to read and think those things for the sake of 'literary conversation' is pointless. As with Joyce, the difficulty is not in the prose.

>>7053194
Many layers, nigga. That theory is interesting but it doesn't tie everything up.

For practical purposes, Tristero is very real and the book is about cultural and individual isolation. (waste, death, yadyadyayada) A system that forces people to communicate with small like minded groups or not really at all. It distorts public discourse (muting the trumpet, changing the sound, altering letters) and drives the world a little mad. Now of course, very little of this makes everyday 'sense' but it's an allegory in the broadest sense. Probably the most blatant metaphor in the book is the 'tower' thing with the Remedios Varo painitng, and Oedipa stuck in her tower like Rapunzel. Most of the world is just stuck in their own towers, spinning the yarn of a life lived from inside, fooling themselves into thinking the tapestry is escape. Pierce is an example of someone free from the tower, not unlikely due to wealth and connections, but instead of understanding he needs to free Oed from her own tower, he picks the lock to hers with a credit card (buying his way in?) and meets her in the top. Helping her not at all, and only joining her in her worldly isolation.

>>7053226
This guy gets it. Inverarity's desire to isolate himself with Oedipa rather than set her free resonates with my own relationship failures and hit pretty hard.

Also Oedipa was probably drunk a lot and this contributes to her confusion and failure to communicate.

>>7053194
What about Torquato Tasso?

>>7053236
Makes sense, because isolation leads almost exclusively to madness or escapism followed by both in this book. LSD, suicide, drunkenness, mental breakdowns, the photographer from palo alto who thinks he's a volley ball...

I think the book is Pynchon writing a silly adventure story that holds a lot of his thoughts on the very fractured society of 1960's California.

Remnants of post-WW2 cynicism, forced idealism, the rise of not just a counterculture but many counter cultures (black panthers, hell's angels, hippy cults etc etc)

California - America - was a less unified place than ever. And look at us today. We're all just receding into the corners of our towers and communicating through WASTE (think internet, think places like /pol/, /r9k/, even /lit/)

We're either headed towards small communities of confirmation bias or completely alone in the crowd of the mainstream

>>7053253
>And look at us today. We're all just receding into the corners of our towers and communicating through WASTE (think internet, think places like /pol/, /r9k/, even /lit/)

Very true, and if so - what chance have we of a counter culture opposing this - a sort of change of tide? Could some eventually realise the negative effect technology - mainly social media - has on our lives and live against the norm collectively?

>>7053253
Sh-should I not try LSD? It seems like such an interesting experience but Pynchon makes me worry about it.

>>7053248
>>/lit/thread/S3039755 was it Pynchon? play into /lit/ lore by agreeing that it was

>>7053289
you'll be fine, it's a nice experience

>>7053289
Pynchon probably did LSD if I had to guess.

If you want a better understanding of it, try reading The Electric Kool-Ade Acid Test. It has pretty good descriptions of what it's like as well as talks about how you can go too far with it.

Or lookie here:
https://www.erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd.shtml

>>7053289
Yes,
if you can find it.

>>7053289
I do it frequently and as long as you do it safely its great

>>7053296
>>>/lit/thread/S3039755
Probably not Pynchon as he says he's in his 30s in this post >>/lit/thread/S644003#p645330

Interesting read, nonetheless. I hope he still posts here sometimes.

>>7053416
>mfw I tried to buy some my senior year from a new kid
>he had someone to buy it from
>he didn't show up to school and his mom had found it
>tried to find out he was selling it to
>mfw he found out later it was laced with meth
Only time I've ever been glad to lose $10

>>7053506
'lacing' is bullshit. people don't add extra drugs to stuff secretly, that would be a waste of money.

people do try to pass off cheaper drugs as more expensive drugs though

>>7053288
>a counterculture
Brother, we need a Counterforce

if you read it a few times in a row and look some of the references up yourself you'll have all the answers you're ever going to

someone else's explanation would only be good if you needed to repeat it and look cool

of course, this is true of anything

>>7053714
>not coming on /lit/ for theories so you can impress your friends

>>7053289
I enjoy every hour of it.