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/lit/ - Literature

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3250603 No.3250603 [Reply] [Original]

Sup /lit/.
I just got done reading pic related.
I remember coming across this thread a few weeks ago that had a screenshot from an old archived /lit/ thread where some guy gave an awesome interpretation of the book or something like that (I didn't really know what he was saying at the time because I hadn't read the book). Anyone know what I'm talking about? Anyone have that image?

Also, what did you think of the book?
Any cool things a layman, like myself, would have overlooked in my superficial reading?

>> No.3250610

I thought it was kinda dumb like there's a lot of random things happening and I don't know if it was really supposed to be funny. And I hated the ending because it didn't really explain anything.

>in b4 someone says that was the point and makes up some pretentious philosophical shit out of his ass

>> No.3250612

>>3250603
>some guy

You mean Steve Erickson.

>> No.3250616

>>3250610
Yeah, I don't really know what I was supposed to get out of it. I mean, I enjoyed the read despite being a bit confused, so I guess that justifies reading it. I was hoping someone would come alone and blow my mind with some interpretation that glued all the pieces together.

inb4
>reading to "get" something out of it

>> No.3250620

>>3250612
No, I distinctly remember it being an anon's interpretation.

>> No.3250668
File: 179 KB, 730x450, vase-urns.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3250668

Bumping with urns so hopefully someone will respond

>> No.3250679

There is no reading.

>> No.3250681

>What the author is trying to say is ... Dude, what?

Look, I know Pynchon can be anything from stained glass opaque to a slab of fucking lead. Really, I know.

Not this time.

As a profession philately is a vast, deeply interrelated, dangerous motherfucker best left to the professionals. When was the last time you met a real, full time, practitioner? No, your batty aunt with her little collection of surplus drivel does not count. I'm talking about the real deal, the people who do this for a living. Do you know why you've never met one? Because they've learned to keep out of sight, out of the limelight, out of public knowledge - or they are fucking dead.

This was a public service message by Pynchon, who you may have noted has to keep a low profile as well. Heed the warning.

What you now know is all you need to know.

Heed the warning.

>> No.3250683
File: 73 KB, 798x1024, Aug19_Sevres_urns.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3250683

My personal favorite pair from my collection

>> No.3250690

>>3250681
Oh. Yes. Postage.

>> No.3250704

>>3250683
>>3250668

You've gotten me all flustered. This is a blue board.

>> No.3250731

>>3250683

I haven't slept in 43 hours, that's the only reason I am talking about urns.

Don't make this a thing, they aren't actually funny.

Or at least I'm hoping they won't still be funny when I wake up.

>> No.3250738

>>3250603
I believe you might be referring to this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torquato_Tasso
He said that the book should be viewed as a riddle with Tasso as the answer.

>> No.3250739

>>3250731

Just kidding I'm almost certain they will still be funny.

>> No.3250745
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3250745

>>3250731
Just trying to creatively bump my thread, don't look to far into it bro.I promise I wont make your shitty joke into a meme.

>> No.3250752

>>3250738
Mind explaining this to me?
If I read the wiki page will I understand?

>> No.3250762

>>3250752
Probably not; quote from that thread (I have it saved but can't find it in the archive):
I pray to God that before Pynchon dies somebody will point out that the secret answer to The Crying of Lot 49 is "Torquato Tasso". Thurn & Taxis? Torquato Tasso? The image of the badger on his back? Get it?

Torquato Tasso was a famous literary artist who went mad and got locked away. In other words, Oedipa's experience of paranoia is a form of artistic madness. That's it. It's a puzzle book, just like Pale Fire expects you to work out the puzzle that the crown jewels are hidden in Kobaltana. This, incidentally, is why my good friend Tommy basically disowned Lot 49 in the preface to Slow Learner.

Again, the fact that no academic has noticed this about Pynchon---even men as bright as Edward Mendelson or Tony Tanner---shows more about the limitations of the academic mindset than anything else.
(Cont.)

>> No.3250766
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3250766

>>3250603

http://fuuka.warosu.org/lit/thread/S667543

^ the awesome Pynchon thread

>> No.3250767

>>3250762
Shall I lay it out in lemmata? (That being the proper Greek plural.)
1. The "Taxis" in Thurn & Taxis is ascribed as being derived from the Italian word "Tasso" meaning "badger." Here's the passage....

"Soon he had added to his iconography the muted post horn and a dead badger with its four feet in the air (some said that the name Taxis came from the Italian tasso, badger, referring to hats of badger fur the early Bergamascan couriers wore). He began a sub rosa campaign of obstruction, terror and depredation along the Thurn and Taxis mail routes. Oedipa spent the next several days in and out of libraries and earnest discussions with Emory Bortz and Genghis Cohen". (If you don't believe me.)
2. Look up the Latin verb "torqueo, torquere". It means: to twist, turn, screw. "Torquato" is a Latin past-participle. Torquato Tasso = Turned Badger.
3. Of course "Thurn" is the German word for "tower", like the tower in Remedios Varo's painting.
4. Of course there is a famous poem about Torquato Tasso (besides Goethe's) by Shelley (Julian & Maddalo) which describe's Tasso as a madman locked away in a tower.
5. Shall I go on?

Is this what you were looking for OP?

>> No.3250768

>>3250762
Yeah man, that's it! thanks.

>> No.3250779
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3250779

>>3250766
>>3250767
Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks, friends.

>> No.3250819

>>3250745

Did you just call my urns shitty?

There are no words to convey my grief.

>> No.3250824

>>3250819

Just kidding, there are.

Grief. Grief gets the job done pretty well.

>> No.3250832

I just read Crying of Lot 49 a few days ago, thanks for posting this—very interesting