/lit/ - Literature

I dream of Banana Breakfast for all
let us all partake of that kindly Banana Bread and Banana Mead

>All these people saying they wouldn't learn a language just to read books
>just

>*psht*
>"Country Joe and the Fish, Tiny Tim, the Bonzo Dog Band, the Beach Boys, The Trashmen... now THAT was real groovy 60s music... "
>*sips*
>"Yep... sure don't make em like that anymore..."

Holy shit, so yesterday I met Thomas Pynchon in a bar in NYC.
Actually, "met" doesn't do it justice, rather I witnessed him.
So I'm sitting down with my gf having a cup of coffee when some lanky old dude with a newsboy hat enters the establishment and stands there at the door like an idiot for maybe a minute. I recognize him immediately but I'm too far away to greet him. Besides, I don't want to be mistaken and look like a fool.
So he stands there for a good minute, then he slowly starts strutting across the place to some shitty samba music that was playing inside. Naturally I'm kinda weirded out, but everyone else is just minding their own business like they're familiar with him and see this every day.
So he struts across the bar and continues to shuffle in front of the barista. She asks him what he will have and Pynch replies "I'll have you, you mammary". She laughs nervously and "corrects" him: "No, you'll have an orange juice with some lemon, isn't that right?". Pynch just keeps saying he'll have her over and over again and does some weird ass spin which I suppose was meant as an invitation to dance. Of course she declines. At this point I'm cringing like mad but can't stop watching. He notices me and struts over to the table. Somehow I introduce myself and say I'm a big fan of his. He starts laughing like a madman at first, then he screams at my girlfriend while not breaking eye contact for 15-20 seconds or so, and so loud my ears literally start hurting from the vibrations. He finally spits into her drink and says something like "mmm, kafe a la puttanesca?". I'm fucking frozen and don't want to do shit because he's looking really old and physically frail, so I'm just taken aback while he struts out of the bar (no music is even playing, just the announcer talking).
So that happened, we just got the hell out of there, barista apologizing to us and asking us to come again. Came home maybe a half an hour ago to type this out.

Hello /lit/.

I am trying to learn to write. The problem is that I never have any ideas, and when I write from nothing the mixture of how shit it is and how little idea I have of where it is going stops me from continuing. I remember when I started getting into lit, I had a ton of ideas, but these days they seem like adolescent stupidity and far too (pseudo)literary to practice with, and I am having no new ideas - is it because I read so much more than I did back then - that my immersion in books prevents me from being able to come up with original ideas?

How do I learn to write? Do you have any practical advice for this? I will accept basic "get your fucking act together" stuff but I would prefer some advice that I could put into actual practice.

Why do great authors gradually become better and better before peaking generally between 35-55 and then getting gradually worse before becoming, in some instances, genuinely shit. I mean how did the man who wrote Gravity's Rainbow at 35-ish, then write Bleeding Edge at 75-ish? I know he wrote M&D in between but the point stands and it seems to be the acknowledged trend for artists in all mediums, really. I just don't understand what happens to the ambition and talent of these writers. There are exceptions I know like Dante and Joyce, but as I say they are exceptions. Has any writer written about this phenomenon?

Pynchon will be fine, right guys? RIGHT!?

I'm getting worried about him.

Alright /lit/,

My mum is interested in started reading a Pynchon novel. I don't want her to be put off by something she would find inaccessible and completely dismiss Pynchon because of it.

So I'm gonna pick one for her at my uni library, which one would your recommend she starts with, out of the following ones :

Inherent Vice
Bleeding Edge
Vineland
Against The Day
Mason & Dixon

Somebody's borrowed Gravity's Rainbow & V and forgot to give them back apparently.

Oh, important note : She would read a translation, her English ain't very good, I'm afraid

how will we know if he dies

would like him less if you found out he was living in some 8000 sq foot mansion and driving a ferrari

is he happy

Isn't it risky to take 17 years off in your prime. what if he couldn't get published again

I've never read any of his books but I hear good things.

What about him is meme? And what about him is good? Genuinely interested, as I see a lot of mixed reviews of him on here

Who are his influences?