Thomas Pynchon

[Entropic Gnosis]

Anyone else here read any of Pynchon's books? I have been looking for someone to discuss them with.

[Robyn Banks]

Entropic Gnosis:
Anyone else here read any of Pynchon's books? I have been looking for someone to discuss them with.
Yes - I quite got into him about 10 years ago. So that's a bit long ago to give you a fresh precis, but I'd be interested in what you had to say.

Your name, or at least the first half, was 'pynched' from the Crying of Lot 49?

Robyn Banks

[Entropic Gnosis]

I've been gone for a while i have to admit, moving into a new apartment and all. In regards to the "pynching" of my name i've used this SN before i read pynchon actually but it does fit nicely.

The aspect of pychon i find most intersting, being something of a linguist, is how he uses very percise languge to misdirect the reader as well as his characters. This was most prevelant in Gravity's Rainbow what with all of Slothrop's "black words" which stem from the Rocket. One thing i noticed was that as Slothrop tried to define the rocket and the events surrounding it more and more is when he began to disaapear as though the words were removing him from the reality of the situation. Granted this is a very small aspect of a book i can only begin to understand.

[Robyn Banks]

Entropic Gnosis:
The aspect of pychon i find most intersting, being something of a linguist, is how he uses very percise languge to misdirect the reader as well as his characters. This was most prevelant in Gravity's Rainbow what with all of Slothrop's "black words" which stem from the Rocket. One thing i noticed was that as Slothrop tried to define the rocket and the events surrounding it more and more is when he began to disaapear as though the words were removing him from the reality of the situation. Granted this is a very small aspect of a book i can only begin to understand.
Hmmmmm. I did enjoy Gravity's Rainbow.

Words affecting things? This is, I guess, the very definition of insane. Confusion of nonreality / fantasy with the real. Pynchon's use of words is definitely complex. I can't remember the detail of the book enough to confirm this particular idea. But it sounds like one of his tricks, anyway. He definitely shows that the purpose of words are more complex than merely conveying the ideas 'contained' therein.

I do remember one sentence, which thankfully is in German, or it may have gotten edited: "Fickte nichte mit der Recketmensche."

I've bound to have mispelt that, but maybe understanding misspelt German is within your range of linguistic skills. :smile:

In what ways does Pynchon "use very precise languge to misdirect the reader as well as his characters?" Do you have more specific examples?

[Robyn Banks]

Entropic Gnosis met with an entropic decline. :hrm: