/lit/ - Literature

4chan is neither as underground nor as isolated from mainstream culture as you would be led to believe. And it's certainly not unique in collective outlook. That's partly from influence and partly from being influenced.

>>6572435
> 4chan is neither as underground nor as isolated from mainstream culture as you would be led to believe

Yes, post-fappening.

Remember when he was posting here and when he would have been writing Bleeding Edge, a novel about the deep web.

>>6572455
>post-fappening.

Try again.

>>6572455
4chan was very well known before the fappening.

>>6572463
Get out of your basement. You overestimate 4chan's popularity. Most people don't know reddit.

>>6572455
>post-fappening

Not even. The site has been extremely surface level for years. We get more unique hits in a month than some countries have in total population. And it's been like that for some time, and it's only getting more and more "normal".

Some of the behavior I see now would have been insane to even consider when I started posting nearly a decade ago. For better or worse, people are a lot more accepting of the mainstream status quo. Sometimes that bothers me, but it is what it is.

>>6572478
>most people don't know reddit

I don't believe you. Not with how many celebrities they rope into openly posting there.

>>6572478
There was a lot of media buzz surrounding 4chan around '08 with the whole chanology thing. He could've easily found out about it during that time.

>>6572490
All those celebrity posts are promotional material for whatever work theyre releasing soon. Theyre involved for maybe an hour and theyre likely not even reading or typing most of the time. Reddit ama's are just an easier talk show spot for them, organized by promoters.

Still no one can explain the Prince Lucio Rimanez connections.

If it was just some guy impersonating Pynchon, he could probably impersonate an entire novel of his.

You all forget that people on the Pynchon mailing list suspected that he posted under the pseudonym Martin Scribner or something like that.

Do you even Pynchon apocrypha?

>>6572478
When I went to college I watched people shit posting on reddit in almost every class I took. Only time I ever hear or see normies mention us is in the context of "lol ugh thats so gross that's like 4chan only they would like something so weird like omg"

have y'all read this thread he posted in?
>>/lit/thread/S982076#p985707
I think its just as interesting, if less identifiable and more obviously stoned.

>>6572531
>awareness =/= usage

And your grandmother doesn't account for "most people."

>>6572547
That could be anyone and the discussion had nothing to do with him. What makes you think it was him specifically?

>>6572435
but only certain people would come here, just like certain people go to /pol/ or 9gag we have a certain demographics who is into philosophy/literature who were mostly born in the 90s. An 80 year old man coming here is unlikely, would you go on 9gags reading community?

>>6572558
Its got all the trademarks: the double quote arrows, the erudition, the same time period, the way of jumping between subjects and the same tone with all the hypotheticals and rhetorical questions

>>6572545
>normies talking about 4chan
Only time I've experience this was when Moot stepped down, and some people I was with mentioned it and said something like "Is 4chan even relevant even more?". I stayed dead silent. I had a pretty sudden realization just how disconnected I am from the social dogma.


I really wish I made this up for shitposting laughs, but who the fuck cares about websites because of perceived relevancy? Who decides what is and what isn't relevant? Relevancy is so subjective I can't even wrap my head around it. Most people use it as a buzzword to decide what is and isn't good, too.

these paragraphs are broken up so they'd be easier on the eyes, just read them like one big blog for better thought flow, although I'm pretty sleep deprived as I've spent the last two days trying to read Critique of Pure Reason

>>6572558
Because of his email correspondence and many other threads he posted in which we traced.

Explain how some bored Pynchon fan figured out the connections between Pynchon, Cornell, Joyce and Nora and Prince Lucio Rimanez (a DW Griffith film).

However can casually pull that out of his ass can probably write a novel imitating him, in which case let's all stop believing Pynchon is one person.

>>6572570
>the double quote arrows
Stopped reading right there.

>>6572585
A character from a DW Griffith film, based on a novel by Marie Correlli, a low-brow sentimental novelist whom Joyce loved and parodied in Ulysses, I might add.

Explain. Just some dude trolling /lit/?

>>6572547
>>6572558
>>6572570
All these threads touting alleged Pynchon posts are starting to sound like the McCarthy trails

>are you now or have you ever been Thomas Pynchon?

>>6572585
Did you check the link I was responding to? It's not that one thread with the crying of lot 49 and Joyce stuff.

>>6572591
because my keen observations needed no more extrapolation?

>>6572604
did you even read that other thread we had where we found several other clearly identifiable posts from not-Bill Murray in the archive?

>>6572585
>figured out the connections

That's if you believe his connections in the first place. A lot of them are just etymological, which could be coincidental.

Also, "some bored Pynchon fan" could literally be a grad student specializing in Pynchon.

>>6572570
>>6572585
You sound pretty paranoid, m8.

>>6572604
Ah, I didn't, but yeah, I do believe that's the same guy. Always the late friday night posting.

>>6572613
I must've missed that one.

>>6572583
now go read the poverty of philosophy and see your hard work get slammed down by a better mind.

>>6572614
>>6572618
His email was

princeluciorimanez@gmail (now defunct - it's OK to be a luddite, amirite?)

Now Prince Lucio Rimanez is a character from a Griffith film (a director referenced in GR) based on a novel by Marie Correlli (whom Joyce admired and we know Pynchon is a big Ulysses fanboy).

Now get this. The guy who played Prince Lucio Rimanez, Adolphe Menjou went to Cornell, as did Pynchon. This actor's mother was Irish, whose first name was Nora and whose maiden name was Joyce and she was from Galway. Now James Joyce's wife Nora Barnacle was also from Galway.

Just some bored Pynchon fan and I'm paranoid?

4chan has been one if the top 50 sites on the entire internet since about 2006.

>>6572618
Are you sure it isn't YOU who are paranoid?? pic related
>>6572629
I think this was the thread. >>/lit/thread/S3039755#p3040988 If you are interested check it out.

>>6572646
Christ mate, look at the 'connections' you are writing out here. These would be welcome in a Dan Brown novel.

>>6572646
Ok there, Tyrone. Don't make us send you back to the abreaction ward.

>>6572663
Looks like you haven't read a single Pynchon novel. Take a stroll back to reddit.

> Dude, Slothrop, look at the 'connections' your penis is making!

A lot of you guys overestimate how mainstream 4chan is. In my experience about half of all the people I've met knew what 4chan was and most of them never visited the site. Some of them only knew 4chan as home base for anonymous or as the place greentext stories come from.

Tldr; most people don't know about 4chan and most people who do actively avoid it

>>6572677
> Because of Menjou's public support of McCarthy's hunt for communists, the anti-imperialistic propaganda of the GDR (German Democratic Republic) used to display their western opponents typically with a Menjou-style moustache.

> Vice versa, in the GDR it was rated as a statement of political opposition to trim one's moustache that way. This kind of beard became a general symbol for the demimonde, criminal Westler and in Germany it is still called Menjou-Bärtchen (Menjou beardlet).
> In German film and theatre play dubious gentlemen, opportunists, corrupt politicians, fraudulent persuaders, marriage impostors or other charming criminals are often equipped with such a Menjou-Bärtchen and in real life it is linked by prejudice and self-fulfilling prophecy to occupations like car trader, traveling salesman, insurance agent, pimp, investment consultant or estate agent.

> and in real life it is linked by prejudice and self-fulfilling prophecy to occupations like car trader, traveling salesman, insurance agent,
> traveling salesman
> insurance agent

B-BLUEBERRIES! IT WAS HIM ALL ALONG, THAT MOTHERFUCKER RUGGLES!

>>6572697
This tbh.

Most folks in my circle are familliar with it, but don't find it particularly interesting.

it was pynchon. i can confirm. he probably won't be back though.

>>6572704
Pynchon's next novel about a Japanese insurance adjuster will reference Menjou and Prince Lucio Rimanez.

Also, blueberries.

Screencap this post. It's happening.

>>6572719
it's not really :(

>>6572722
Is that you, Steve Erickson?

>>6572697
they know of it. but they do not know it.

>>6572598
>McCarthy trails
actually, the title of the book is the Road fyi

>>6572657
>>6572704
>>6572723
Eh? Really? That's cool and all but I'd prefer the Pinecone about Medieval surfers who see smurfs in the water after smoking dank Dark Ages dope.

You guys liked Mason&Dixon well enough didn't you?

>>6572598
> McCarthy trails
see
>>6572704

Thomas Pynchon here. AMA.

>>6572740
>You guys liked Mason&Dixon well enough didn't you?

You mean Manson & Nixon and, yes, I loved it.

>>6572750
Have you named your genitals and if so, what have you named them?

>>6572750
You're not funny or clever. Don't try to ruin the thread. Read more Pynchon.

>>6572750
Betcha never did the Kenosha Kid.

Bleeding Edge takes place in 2001 and 4chan didn't exist then. No reason to go to 4chan for research

>>6572763
Right, because he wrote Bleeding Edge for a 2001 audience, right?

That's how literature works, right?

You're dumb.

>>6572618
>but am I paranoid enough?

>>6572583
Really, I don't think 4chan has a whole has ever been popular aside from /b/ and maybe /v/, with some exceptions.

>>6572770
You're really mad about the fact that 4chan was never graced by Pynchon's divine presence aren't you

>>6572679
If Pynchon's novels consist of circumstantial nonsense on the scale of >>6572646 , then thanks for saving me the trouble of reading that portion of the meme trilogy. Look at the statements being made in this post:

>This actor's mother was Irish, whose first name was Nora and whose maiden name was Joyce and she was from Galway. Now James Joyce's wife Nora Barnacle was also from Galway.

Would you believe that Pynchon's college's distinguished graduate's mother's maiden name lead him to post on 4chan with an e-mail address referencing a character played by her son?

>>6572784
Pynchon's connections are even looser bro. I guess you're just a fag.

>>6572784
>circumstantial nonsense
You sound like the type of guy who watches generic cop shows and thinks they're clever for figuring out who the culprit is.

>>6572784
>that Pynchon's college's distinguished graduate'

Why go out of his way to say that he's not a scholar, doesn't think like a scholar, is a writer, Tony Tanner is smart but not that smart?


>>6572780
You're mad that you missed out on the best thing ever to happen to /lit/. Aren't you?

>>6572797
>You're mad that you missed out on the best thing ever to happen to /lit/. Aren't you?
>still thinking pinecone was on 4chan
Kek. I do remember there was someone who liked to post as he was Pynchon, yet he was just a faggot who is part of the "Pynchonites".

>>6572797
The only internet meme that Bleeding Edge references is All Your Base and he wouldn't have foudn out about that on 4chan

>>6572806
I asked Pynchon if he was a troll, he responded that he was the troll under Bill Clinton's promised "bridge to the 21st century."

> So tonight, let us resolve to build that bridge to the 21st century, to meet our challenges and protect our values. Let us build a bridge to help our parents raise their children, to help young people and adults to get the education and training they need, to make our streets safer, to help Americans succeed at home and at work, to break the cycle of poverty and dependence, to protect our environment for generations to come, and to maintain our world leadership for peace and freedom. Let us resolve to build that bridge.

> Tonight, my fellow Americans, I ask all of our fellow citizens to join me and to join you in building that bridge to the 21st century.

> I want to build a bridge to the 21st century in which we expand opportunity through education. Where computers are as much a part of the classroom as blackboards. Where highly trained teachers demand peak performance from their students. Where every eight-year-old can point to a book and say I can read it myself.

> Now folks, if we do these things, every eight-year-old will be able to read, every 12-year-old will be able to log in on the Internet, every 18-year-old will be able to go to college and all Americans will have the knowledge they need to cross that bridge to the 21st century.

> I want to build a bridge to the 21st century in which we create a strong and growing economy to preserve the legacy of opportunity for the next generation by balancing our budget in a way that protects our values and ensuring that every family will be able to own and protect the value of their most important asset, their home.

BILL CLINTON: Do we want to weaken our bridge to the 21st century?

CROWD: No.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics-july-dec96-clinton_08-29/

>>6572808
Why would he reference 4chan memes that happened after 2001?

The point to lurking imageboards as research on a novel about the beginnings of the internet is to SEE THE CULTURE so he can write about where it started and intimate where it will end up.

You're a manchild.

>>6572822
huh
I don't know what to believe now.

>>6572844
Don't weaken that bridge, bro. Keep cool but care.

>>6572832
Lmao you are seriously mentally retarded and unaware if yout hink 2013 4chan is in anyway representative of internet culture at large, especially 2001 internet culture

>>6572856
Read Bleeding Edge.

>>6572866
Why don't you identify the parts of it that are in any way related to 4chan, you autistic weirdo

>>6572876
Dude, stop posting. You can't think, you can't write. It's not about "why didn't he namedrop the moot?"

>>6572888
You're right: it isn't about anything other than you being a dumb obsessive faggot

>>6572531
Exposure is exposure my man.

YOU GUYS. Pinecone laid the breadcrumb trail out for us and now we're here just eating it all up. He knew that there would never be a definite answer. There couldn't be, but there's just enough definite information on the matter to keep us chasing our tails or his tail. All we can possibly determine from the information given is that we don't know! Everything else is a leap, not too far of one, but too far to be sure. A conspiracy built around the tight ramblings of an anonymous internet user regarding some very loose connections - albeit accurate. Who could have done such a thing but Pinecone himself? Or...

>>6573341
>albeit accurate

Questionable

>>6573351
* - albeit convincing. Or if not convincing than they were created strong enough to withstand scrutiny, or at least to withstand it's pressure and not break.

His whole reasoning was questionable. To the point of fiction. He created his own connections and reality from established literature. But isn't that what Pynchon does? He takes established historical texts and creates a world around them. That can't be his whole game of course, but it's an important fact to think about in regards to the matter. Of course Pinecone isn't the only human in the world with the capability for creativity. Nor is he the only human capable of speaking in a multitude of voices.

And this is an anonymous board.

>read too many pynchon books
>start to think shitposts are real life pynchon books

>>6573441
Jokes on you buddy. I can't read.

>>6572822
Fascinating.

>>6572431
Anyone who gets on the internet frequently knows of 4chan, and has probably been here.

4chan is an EXTREMELY popular website and has bee since....oh 2008?

>>6572455
>Yes, post-fappening.

are u kidding? were u even here in 05-07? it was one of the largest forums on the internet before its surge in popularity lol

>>6572531
>All those celebrity posts are promotional material for whatever work theyre releasing soon.

arnold schwarzenegger

How has everyone forgotten that time Pynchon's editor posted here saying that Pynchon's got one more epic in progress?

Thomas Pynchon has ceased to exist. Yes, there was a time in history where a man named Thomas Pynchon existed, and there was a time in history when that man wrote a few works, one of which was V.

Then, in October 1969, he was checked into a hospital after a car crash. He died. A close friend took up his moniker and decided to publish his opus in the friend's name - Gravity's Rainbow.

And, then one day, that Thomas Pynchon got old and died. He had mentored a young lad, and taught him how to write in that style. And so he did. Then, that lad became Thomas Pynchon.

And so it goes, a never ending cycle of Thomas Pynchons, authors publishing their works hidden in a careful, well orchestrated language of paranoia and quirkiness to trick critics into thinking that the 2005 Pynchon is different than the 1989 Thomas Pynchon.


Thomas Pynchon does not exist. Yes, there was a time in history where a man named Thomas Pynchon existed, and there was a time in history when that man wrote a few works, one of which was V.

>>6572723
The japanesr insurance thing and godzilla were in Vineland you fucking retard

>>6572455
>post-fappening
u wut m8.

>>6572431
Ok let's ask the real question: What does it matter if he posted on this board? Will that stroke your e-peen sufficiently to know that Pynchon posted here once upon a time, or will you feel better about your relative intellectual inadequacy to other posters here, because after all, they could be Thomas Pynchon for Christ sakes!

>>6574989
Here's the real question: what does it matter making your retarded teenage post?

>>6574284
So Thomas Pynchon is basically the Dread Pirate Roberts.

>>6572534
I admire someone who can impersonate pynchon more than pynchon

>>6574993
no you!

>>6572583
4chan is relevant in the sense that it's a legitimate counterculture. Reddit is just straight pleb tier.

#pynchongate

>>6572598
Kek

>>6574164
>EXTREMELY popular
I know we like to do everything in our power to make ourselves look NOT like the "4chan is my secret club, no girls or fags allowed, this is so much better than middle school, huh guys?" boogeyman-newfaggy image that we all love disparaging and projecting onto everyone else, but this is going a little bit too far.

This place isnt fucking facebook. Its not EXTREMELY popular. Hey, it aint fuckin deep web either, but still.

>>6576956
You can officially go suck a dick.

Shit thread.

Stop arguing about 4chan's popularity and get back to managing the mangos, the map-holes, the tanks and the bazookas. Get back to work, the conspiracy isn't going any-where so long as you fello's keep bickering like rodents. Try reading some more of Pinecone, especially more recent work. Hope to hell's angels we find something there.

>>6575264
>in the sense that it's a legitimate counterculture
Do you have a single fact to back that up, buddy?

>>6577241
If you paid attention to Gravity's Rainbow you'd understand that culture and counterculture and the entire us/them dichotomy constantly overlap and bleed into each other until the point where they become indistinguishable as separate things, if they could ever truly have been considered separate in the first place.

>>6572478
If I ask someone where I live if they know what 4chan is, they are more likely to answer yes than if I ask if they know what reddit is.

Should we dox Pynchon, or would that be going a bit too far? I mean... if I found his address, his email, his password, the shitty typed letters to Big Guy Bloom? What then?

>>6572478
>most people dont know reddit
>Obama himself had an ama on reddit
stupid frogposter

>>6577341
Yeah I found those to. Don't fuck with anything.

>>6577308
On the flip side, if you were to ask people if they actively used either site, you would probably get more people saying 'yes' to reddit. People know about 4chan by infamy; the type of people who think "oh that's the hacker site, right?"

>>6577355
Check out H, specifically the Fantastique thing about Portrait of the Artist and Opium for the Masses.

>>6577405
Yeah thats interesting.

>>6577405
Want to get on an IRC or something, the " Wizard of Oz^2" folder is super weird.

>>6577520
Not really. Just somebody passing through, I am not that interested in this sort of shit anyways.