Saturday, October 31, 2009

Paul Mason Reviews Vineland

Well, not really, but Mason hits the nail on the head. They may as well print this on the back cover of the next edition of Thomas Pynchon's Vineland:
If you sat down and free-associated the history of American popular culture, while simultaneously trying to explain the defeat of the 1968 generation and the fatal attraction of the Washington elite, smoking dope and watching a DVD box set of the early Star Trek, you would be in the place where Pynchon begins this book. I am haunted by his satire of idealism and betrayal, kung fu, postmodernism and grief.

I don't know if I could summarize it any better. It's also worth reading Mason's other seven 'desert island books.' The website is called Red Pepper, and just from this one page, it looks like it's worth checking out.

2 comments:

Corey said...

I came across this recently, not sure I buy the theory, but it would be lovely if it were true:

http://people.math.jussieu.fr/~harris/Pynchon.pdf

D. Shaw said...

I got as far as footnote seven, which sent me on the search for Pynchon's Luddite essay. That being said, I guess I have no excuse not to read Against the Day.