/lit/ - Literature

P Y N C H E D

Hyuk hyuk hyuk, we got ourselves another one.

Just ordered this, never read any Pynchon before, what am I in for? How would you rank it along with V, GR and M&D?

This one's actually true tho

>>12154994
go back to reading corncob fag

>>12155011
A woman sits down in a restaurant. She orders a signified. The waiter brings her a signifier. When she notices the error she calls for the waiter and points it out. He apologizes and takes the plate back to the kitchen and then brings a new one. The woman thanks him but after he's left she notices that instead of bringing her her signified he's brought her seven signifiers. Perplexed she once again calls for the waiter. The waiter again apologizes – but will offer no explanation for the strange mishap – and takes the signifiers back to the kitchen. The woman then cries as she sees the whole cooking staff come out of the kitchen carrying 49 signifiers.

>>12155065
what this mean

I knew it was coming and it still gave me pic related

>>12155065
my new copypasta
I love you
thanks

>>12155216
But did you know she'd be asleep?

i like tcol49, it's so short that you can sneak a reread in every now and then. no major commitment

that said, there are some serious flaws with this one. pynchon's characters (his biggest weakness) are at their worst here, parading through the book as awfully sketched exposition dispensers, and the rambling sections in chapters 4 and 5 are flat out grating

when he wants to he can craft a great mood and really suck you in. at his best not even the goofy asides are able to break the spell

>>12155290
>at his best not even the goofy asides are able to break the spell
honest question: were you spellbound by the renaissance play?

>>12155339
not really? or maybe, i mean i do like that bit very much but it's almost wikipedia-like. there's a great, great line in there though, "it is made clear that certain things not be spoken aloud" or something, that neatly epitomizes the entire experience of reading the book. everything just gets turned up a notch when you reach that point, it's such a blunt and ominous break

>>12155339
This is honestly the best part of the book. Kinda summarized all the allegorical points

>>12155011
M&D=GR>Lot 49>>>>>>>>>>>V

>>12155065
lol

>>12155184
Forget it Jake, it's Pynchontown.

>>12155339
Yes. It was creepy.

>>12154994
C I A F U N D E D
I
A

F
U
N
D
E
D

>>12155184
the signified represents the bastion of illusitivity, the epiphenomenon of transcendental configuration of the bi-dilectic ontologic numeral transpiring epilogue perpetuated betwixt a barely fragile chasm of semi pseudo quasi perpetuity. The doman of the tangibly intangible coheres with the never present past transponding towards the never never absolute, which relayed to the opposite of the reflection of the representation of the other other, in the others other other, negated, becomes a negative positivity, multiplied by the tangential frame of anti-space and anti-time, the disillusionment with real non-illusionary illusions metaphorically copulates bilaterally down the n domain of the primary essence of the last conceptual essence of essence, that is the birth of the pre essence is contained in the last breath of the dying conception of anti essence, lacking the velocity of matter-of-fact vis a vis qua 'abstract pre frontal lobe' self interrogation, by the Big Other called the society of secret mind, the individual is left holding the bag, and if we are to believe what it has been believed nature has told us, handed down from the, yes, cringe, translations, as we have yet to crack the code on natures true tongue, thus far it at least phenomenologically appears her majesty begs us to place it over our heads, and celebrate the phallus.

>>12155011
A really fun disorientating novel, people have branded it pretentious but Pynchon’s prose is anything but. I’d recommend ignoring anything about the novel before you go into it and instead just taking it on it’s own terms at first - I’ll only say surface confusion seems to be the desired affect (though afterwards you might want to check out Baudeillard’s Simulacra which pairs well with the novel).

>>12156231
Also on top of this^
>>12155290
raises a good point that the novel’s brevity does lead to character’s feeling somewhat underdeveloped - though later Pynchon, especially Mason and Dixon (probably his best novel) which is so different to his earlier style, is much more centred around character.

Given that it is 140 pages long I would say that is quite a solid effort

>>12155184
non-meme answer:
signifier = language (or some other way of attempting to communicate)
signified = what the signifier "actually means"
you can never really get at the signified, you can only keep chaining together signifiers