/lit/ - Literature

>>21895736
> What's the fixation on weird shit?

Pynchon explicitly writes with the intention to confuse for a few reasons in Gravity's Rainbow:

1. Pynchon is deeply into the idea of entropy, or reverse causality. "A screaming comes across the sky," we hear the sound of the V-2 only after it has landed, the Kabbalah, an esoteric Jewish mystical system is constantly deployed throughout the book, yet is explained to the reader at the end of the book. This is just a few of the examples we're dealing with here.

2. Pynchon's enemy is Them. Never explained, barely referenced, the only idea of Them we get is that "They’ embrac[e] possibilities far beyond Nazi Germany." And that's it. Sure, Weizmann is the Bad Guy, but They are invoked as the puppet masters pulling even his strings. Also, in GR, WE are THEM as well, they have an office branch in every corner of our minds, they manipulate our fear, hopes, psychoses to serve Their interests. The only proposed solution to this dilemma is to pursue sadism and masochism in the general public, to defy Them and all they want. It's strange, but it kind of connects to the thesis that these Nazi's were just a bunch of horny bastards. This is why you see characters literally eating shit, it's how they revolt against Them, also Nazism.

3. Pynchon is deeply suspicious of mass-entertainment, and this suspicion extends to the very book he is writing now. It doesn't matter if its Wagnerian opera or a cowboy movie, They manipulate it and use it for their own economic interests. During the scene where the double agent Katje Borgesius watches a film of Grigori the octopus watching a film of her intended to condition him to attack her, we should realize that we are the next link in the chain of conditioning spectatorship as we read the very words on the page. Pynchon wants our paranoia about how They are controlling our minds to extend to him, to his publishers, to all media. This is also why I will never understand why Gravity's Rainbow is so lauded for introducing high and low culture together... Pynchon is deeply suspicious of popular entertainment throughout the book.

>>21858374
Being rich is Overrated and a waste of a life. Just read and work. You never had a chance and you’re not in the running so why try?<div class="xa23b"><span class="xa23t"></span><span class="xa23i"></span></div>

>>21711806
The cultural atmosphere around us that has existed for 70 years is the only culture alot of U.S. adults get exposed to. It's not hard to see why they would find you crazy:

> Spongebob was my childhood
> My childhood was great (economically comfortable and unchallenging)
> Every child should watch Spongebob

I think the problem is convincing people that current pop-culture system around us is hostile to anything that fully realized life demands of us.

>>21441750
This guy gets it. Trans issues are no longer health issues, they are identity issues, and they can no longer be decided by an outsider. After all, you know your identity better than anyone else, right? To deny someone their precious identity is to erase them. Never mind that the whole concept of 'identity' is nebulous at best, and fabrication at worst. It really all goes back to the complete atomization of society, the rise of a consumption market based on taste and emotion (also a recent invention). The whole thing is so chock full of paradox. I hate industrial society.

>>20883150
It's strange how pornography has so quickly saturated our society and no one seems interested in talking about the ramifications of this phenomenon except puritan conservatives, which I think even makes discussion harder, because once you've said anything about the topic you've become one of the snooty, puritan, banal, no fun-having Evangelicals, which have been parodied and satirized to death in our current culture.

Which I think totally gets to what you're saying... how does a culture enforce moral values like "Don't rape" but also suggest to it's population to "have fun" and "explore your sexuality" etc. What happens is you get these weird paradoxes where it's (the society's) population stops having physical sex and instead turns to a virtual sex, OnlyFans, pornography, nudes etc. which minimize the emotional damage of physical sex. This is how you get the Superbowl Halftime commercial with buttfucking and the only people making a fuss about it get ironized to death.

>>20884254
I see OP's book, the reformed slut "movement", and the tradcath puriteen "movement" as two end of the same horseshoe. Both are reactions to the increasing pornographication of society.

>Plus their arguments are just un-sexy

That's the issue I'm trying to understand. How the hell do you revolt against institutionalized rebellion without looking like a Mike Pence?

>We know people aren't going achieve their full potential if they go full anti-sex

I'd agree, but at least OP's book and tradcath larpers are making an attempt at pushback. I'm genuinely asking when I ask you this, what the hell does your solution look like, cause I'm lost as hell over here.