/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.18921476]

Snow-balls have flown their Arcs, starr’d the Sides of Outbuildings, as of Cousins, carried Hats away into the brisk Wind off Delaware, - the Sleds are brought in and their Runners carefully dried and greased, shoes deposited in the back Hall, a stocking’d-foot Descent made upon the great Kitchen, in a purposeful Dither since Morning, punctuated by the ringing Lids of various Boilers and Stewing-Pots, fragrant with Pie-Spices, peel’d Fruits, Suet, heated Sugar, - the Children, having all upon the Fly, among rhythmic slaps of Batter and Spoon, coax’d and stolen what they might, proceed, as upon each afternoon all this snowy Advent, to a comfortable Room at the rear of the House, years since given over to their carefree Assaults.

[Anonymous No.18921510]

>>18921476
>20 pages in
>talking dog appears

Hardest and fastest I've ever dropped a book.

[Anonymous No.18921728]

>son and xon
What did Pynch mean by this?

[Anonymous No.18921765]

>>18921476
>Le 17th century Henry James pastiche man

[Anonymous No.18921785]

>>18921510
I'm not sure what was up with that dog, he only appeared that one time I think. The real gaffe is the French chef and the robotic duck episodes later

[Anonymous No.18923680]

>>18921785
to keep you on your toes, now you don't know if he's behind it

[Anonymous No.18923938]

>>18921785
The Learned English Dog appeared later in the book as well, I am sure.

[Anonymous No.18923953]

>>18921510
Imagine getting filtered by this

[Anonymous No.18924576]

>>18921728
They're his pronouns: son/xon

[Anonymous No.18924636]

>>18921510
>look how much I don't read, you guys
you want a fucking pat on the head for being a retard or something? move along faggot

[Anonymous No.18924699]

>>18921476
Holy shit that's good. But my favorite Pynchon's passage is this:
>By now the City is grown so tall that elevators are long-haul affairs, with lounges inside: padded seats and benches, snack bars, newsstands where you can browse through a whole issue of Life between stops. For those faint hearts who first thing on entering seek out the Certificate of Inspection on the elevator wall, there are young women in green overseas caps, green velvet basques, and tapered yellowstripe trousers—a feminine zootsuit effect—who’ve been well-tutored in all kinds of elevator lore, and whose job it is to set you at ease. “In the early days,” pipes young Mindy Bloth of Carbon City, Illinois, smiling vacantly away in profile, close by the brass moire of diamond-blurs passing, passing in vertical thousands—her growing-up face, dreamy and practical as the Queen of Cups, never quite looks for you, is always refracted away some set angle in the goldbrown medium between you
I don't know why it still captivates me since my first reading

[Anonymous No.18924747]

>>18924699
Where is that from?

[Anonymous No.18924782]

>>18921510
you should've seen Against the Day with that shit lmao. But I actually liked it.

[Anonymous No.18924789]

But what about the octuple and good Vrou and asking Mason what it will be like when he and passion are reacquainted??? As well, "how is the king like a near-sighted machine-gunner" is fire satire of the way that technology and counterculture are repurposed and weaponized by the ruling class.m

What did you guys make of the commentary on history? How did pynchon reconcile writing a well-researched, didactic historical novel laden with anachronisms and magic?

[Anonymous No.18924793]

>>18924747
Gravity's Rainbow

[Anonymous No.18924801]

>>18924747
Not that anon, but GR, one of the later passages

[Anonymous No.18924812]

Why do modern and post modern novels have to have special snowflake writing styles? Why can't someone just come up with an interesting plot with some likable characters and go from there? It's always a competition with how weird or hard you can get

[Anonymous No.18924828]

>>18924812
>an interesting plot
name 1 (one) novel with interesting plot

[Anonymous No.18924841]

>>18924828
Muv Luv Alternative

[Anonymous No.18924852]

>>18924812
oh my god, shut the fuck up.
firstly, what examples do you have to prove this outside of pychon. next, why is doing something ornate and deft in any way a BAD thing just because you're not accustomed to it. and last, M&D has on of the best plots, without even considering what your requirements for good plot even are I can guarantee you this.
get off 4chan, kid. irl you don't get praise for not liking stuff the hardest. you need to learn to bite your tongue when you have nothing to say.

[Anonymous No.18924891]

>>18924828
Mistborn

[Anonymous No.18924892]

>>18921510
PYNCHED

[Anonymous No.18924932]

>>18924828
No country for old men

[Anonymous No.18925004]

>>18921728

[Anonymous No.18926024]

>>18921510
>20 pages in
>talking dog appears
that's when I knew this book was golden

[Anonymous No.18926059]

>>18921476
Pardon the cliche but that is incredibly cozy. I think I'm going to re-read this once the weather gets a little cooler. I have a feeling I will enjoy it even more the second time through, and it's already my second favorite novel.

[Anonymous No.18926134]

>>18921476
Can anyone explain this text to me? Why is it typed like that?

[Anonymous No.18926831]

>>18926134
Anachronism. It's a story within a story, set in colonial and early-Victorian America.

[Anonymous No.18926989]

>>18926831
Does it have purpose beyond style?

[Anonymous No.18927011]

>>18921510
the chapter with the clocks talking to eachother was kino

[Anonymous No.18927029]

>>18921785
He appears again near the end in one of the best scenes in the novel.

[Anonymous No.18927042]

>>18926989
The typography on the cover? No.

[Anonymous No.18927061]

>>18927042
The odd capitalization.

[Anonymous No.18927128]

>>18927061
What's odd about it?

[Anonymous No.18927262]

>>18921785
I loved the duck.

>>18927029
Yep.

[Anonymous No.18927271]

>>18924932
>No country for old men
>evil dudes with money
How fresh, yawn

[Anonymous No.18927297]

>>18921476
I have read M&D three times and I might read it again.

[Anonymous No.18927370]

>>18927128
In the text you moron, not on the cover. Did you even read OP?

[Anonymous No.18927436]

>>18927370
Why would I do anything other than look at pictures?

[Anonymous No.18927442]

The best part of the book is when the two hot young cousins sneak off for a Christmas fuck.

[Anonymous No.18927454]

>>18921476
Gravity's Rainbow and Against the Day are two my favourite books. Is Mason and Dixon also that great? It's hard to get this book so I got to be careful.

[Anonymous No.18927522]

>>18927370
It's how books in the 17th century were written

[Anonymous No.18927577]

>>18927522
Thanks, anon.

>Hart recommended his readers to use a capital letter at the beginning of every sentence, proper name, and important common noun. By the 17th century, the practice had extended to titles (Sir, Lady), forms of address (Father, Mistris), and personified nouns (Nature). Emphasized words and phrases would also attract a capital. By the beginning of the 18th century, the influence of Continental books had caused this practice to be extended still further (e.g. to the names of the branches of knowledge), and it was not long before some writers began using a capital for any noun that they felt to be important. Books appeared in which all or most nouns were given an initial capital (as is done systematically in modern German) - perhaps for aesthetic reasons, or perhaps because printers were uncertain about which nouns to capitalize, and so capitalized them all.

>The fashion was at its height in the later 17th century, and continued into the 18th. The manuscripts of Butler, Traherne, Swift, and Pope are full of initial capitals. However, the later 18th-century grammarians were not amused by this apparent lack of discipline in the written language. In their view, the proliferation of capitals was unnecessary, and causing the loss of a useful potential distinction. Their rules brought a dramatic reduction in the types of noun permitted to take a capital letter

[Anonymous No.18927987]

>>18927271
>gets even the premise wrong
Thanlfully books aren't wiki entries, stupid Ni.

[Anonymous No.18928007]

>>18927987
I've read it, dumbass. Don't even preted MacCuck is a competitor Pynchon

[Anonymous No.18928017]

>>18927987
I've read it, dumbass. Don't even pretend McCuck is a competitor to Pynchon.

[Anonymous No.18928019]

>>18928007
Learn to type, retard. And the poster asked for interesting plots, the book has an interesting plot. No need to get your tribalistic ass butthurt that pynchon can't write one for shit.

[Anonymous No.18928026]

>>18928017
Retard can't even post properly. Lmao
You didn't read it did you?

[Anonymous No.18928037]

>>18928019
>>18928026
>McCuck fanboys
Yeah Blood Meridian is great, retards

[Anonymous No.18928050]

>>18928037
Ob-fucking-ssesd. Who is even bringing him up? Reccing a book has got you so damn insecure, lmao. McCarthy is living in your head rent free. Look at you man. Pic related

[Anonymous No.18928298]

>>18928017
He is not a competitor, because pynchud is not even fit to lick McCarthy's cowboy boots clean. Dumb bovine

[Anonymous No.18928363]

Why did this thread descend into McCarthy vs Pynchon and why did I suspect that's where it might end up?

Both are great writers for different reasons. Both have advanced styles, unique plots, and are masters of the language.

What's next? Facile comparisons to Faulkner?

[Anonymous No.18928419]

>>18921510
>NOOOOO NOT A TALKING DOGGERINO
how in the world would that be a problem? do you hate laughing?

[Anonymous No.18928439]

my favorite part was where Mason visits the missing days

[Anonymous No.18928519]

>>18927577
Who are these "Grammarians" and who gave them the Authority to dictate what words are to be capitalized and what words are not?

[Anonymous No.18928521]

>>18928363
Gotta keep the thread bumped. Shithousery always works

[Anonymous No.18929341]

>>18921765
please read the book so you don't have to post nonsense

[Anonymous No.18929412]

>>18921476
fuck, now I want to re-read

>>18927577
The "useful distinction" here seems shaky to me. I mean, assuming the idea is that you come across an unknown noun in the text, and are helped by the capital letter, it must mean that there was an existing ambiguity as to whether the word was or wasn't a proper noun. But in most cases, if it wasn't a proper noun, wouldn't there be an article to signal as much?

I mean, if I write "we met in the/a shinderrey" (purveyor of shindigs) or "we met in Shinderrey" (Irish provincial capital) you don't need the capital letter, because the spoken language has already covered the difference using "a/the"

[Anonymous No.18929423]

>>18929341
Read Henry James. Turn of the screw doesn't count.

[Anonymous No.18929464]

>>18928519
It is an except from The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, it likely goes into depth about it but you probably don't care.

[Anonymous No.18929488]

>>18928519
They didn't have the authority, just like Kylie Jenner doesnt have the authority to dictate the latest fashion trends. Socially-conscious writers back then just followed their lead because of their perceived elite status. Convention is always a game of keeping up appearances

[Anonymous No.18929540]

>>18929488
>t. keeping up appearances